Kiss of the Enemy
by Ken
Summary: Crossover of Sailor Moon with S.M. Stirling's Draka series. After the molehole accident depicted in "Drakon", Gwendolyn Ingolfsson finds herself not in the New York of our timeline but in the Tokyo of the Sailor Senshi.


Most of this story takes place after the end of the Sailor Moon S series. There are spoilers, though I have tried to keep these to a minimum. It assumes that there were several weeks between then and the events at the start of the Sailor Moon Supers series. Except for one minor reference, it has no relation to my previous stories.

This is not so much fan fiction as it is an exercise in creative anachronism. I guess you could call it a crossover. Basically I have taken some of the plot and characters from one story and thrown them into the Sailor Moon universe, just mixing up two fictional worlds to see what would come out. I think the result is best appreciated by anyone who is familiar with both the Sailor Moon and the Draka series (and those of you who are familiar with both are by now probably thinking "This guy must be nuts!" You may be right), though I don't assume the reader has any knowledge of the latter. Also, some parts of this story are rather grim, some readers may find it disturbing. I really put some of the Sailor Senshi through hell. I'd probably give this a PG-13 rating. Be that as it may, I hope most Sailor Moon fans will be entertained by the story. Let me know.

Ken Wolfe

This story contains characters created by Naoko Takeuchi and S.M. Stirling. All the usual fanfic disclaimers apply.

Kiss of the Enemy

Prologue

Rei's first glimpse of the temple was not until they were almost upon it. The road that brought them up the mountainside was tortuous, and a thick stand of pine trees pressed closely on both sides. This high up, they were the ancient first growth trees, not the spindly saplings planted in unnaturally straight rows in a vain attempt to hide the clearcutting that had been done at lower elevations. The car had just gone around another switchback when abruptly the road opened onto the temple grounds.

Rei strained to get a good look at the main building. It wasn't easy. Seated in the back of her father's big Mercedez,  
her head barely came up to the window. She had finally had a good burst of growth this year, thank the Gods, but she was still short for her age. On top of this, the fading twilight and the tinted glass conspired to transform the building into little but an imposing dark shadow that towered over her as they approached.

But the fluttering of her heart had nothing to do with fear,  
only eager anticipation.

Her father killed the engine and the headlights. He turned to face her. "Wait here Rei, I'll be back shortly."

"Yes, father," Rei replied. She hid her excitement, succeeded in assuming the calm, serious demeanour that her father seemed to approve of. He wasn't that hard to please. Not really.

He got out of the car, closed the door,and walked over to the temple. Immediately, Rei undid her seatbelt and kneeled up on the seat, careful not to mess up her shrine maiden robes or let the soles of her shoes dirty the upholstery. Now with a better view, and with her dark adjusted eyes, she could see the building more clearly. Old, much older than her own Hikawa Shrine. Lovingly maintained, but showing its age in the worn statues, the cracks in the supporting timbers, the faded colours. She smiled, and her eyes sparkled. It was so beautiful, more than she had expected. She wanted to cry.

The big double doors were open. Her grandfather suddenly emerged from the doorway and greeted her father with a smile and a wave. Her father did not return the latter, and Rei could guess that he hadn't returned the former either. He climbed the rest of the stone stairway and stood towering over her grandfather. Not too hard, since grandfather isn't much taller than me, Rei thought, chiding herself only slightly for the disrespectful thought. Her father looked so out of place in this ancient setting, standing there in his fine new tailored suit. Her grandfather continued to smile cheerfully as he alternately listened and spoke. Her father's back was turned,  
but his hands clenched stubbornly at his sides told Rei everything she needed to know about his mood. She had overheard this argument more than once, she could recite it from memory. "It's all very well you training her as a shrine maiden, but she's only eight and she shouldn't be neglecting her normal studies. This takes too much of her time, she should be widening her horizons, doing other things." And her grandfather's reply. "In fact her training with us is helping her other studies. She's near the top of her class, and is taking special advanced tutoring in history and comparative religion, remarkable for her age. The discipline is doing her a world of good."

Her father was stubborn, but he wasn't stupid. He sincerely wanted to give Rei every advantage, and he could see how her training and work at Hikawa Shrine was helping her.

But still, it was probably just as well he wasn't aware of exactly what sort of training she was receiving, or what they would be doing here tonight.

Her father walked back down to the car, and opened the back door to find Rei seated with hands folded in her lap, exactly as he had left her. "Rei, I've spoken with your grandfather. They're ready to receive you. I will be here to pick both of you up at eight sharp tomorrow morning. We'll go to the hotel in Hakone to pick up your things and then go straight back to Tokyo."

"I understand, father," Rei said. She got out of the car, and her father closed the door. They both said formal goodbyes, and her father got back into the car. She watched sadly as he drove away, simply because it would be impolite for her to move from that spot until he was out of sight. Just then, when they said goodbye, he had let it slip just a little. It happened every now and then. For an instant, she could see past the stern disapproval, could see in his eyes what he really felt. The pride. The pride in what his little girl was achieving. It was the closest thing to love he had ever shown to her. It was enough for her. It would have to be.

She turned around, and climbed the ancient stone stairs. She resisted a sudden urge to take them two at a time and leap into her grandfather's arms. He gave her a lot more latitude than her father did, so he wouldn't mind. But tonight, she felt honoured to be here. She wanted to show it. "Hello Grandfather." She bowed formally, but couldn't suppress her cheerful smile or the eagerness in her voice.

He stood there grinning, hands on his hips. He was in his snow white priest's robe, which made him stand out like a lantern in front of the dark temple building, even in the fading light. With his bald head and round face, he looked like a little statue of the Buddha. "Hello Rei. What do you think of the place?"

"It's simply beautiful! Tomorrow morning I want to get up at dawn and see as much as I can before father comes to pick us up!"

Her grandfather chuckled. "We'll see how you feel about that after tonight's work, we may have to drag you out of bed tomorrow."

"I'll never forgive you if you let me sleep past dawn!" Rei said in a huff.

Suddenly a voice like thunder came from the dark temple entrance, saying "I think you'd better do as she says old man,  
she sounds serious." A man who Rei decided was only slightly smaller and a little less hairy than a bear emerged from the darkness. He wore a robe identical to her grandfather's, but about six sizes larger. His long wavy black hair and beard surrounded his square face like a mane. He stood towering over them and smiled down at Rei. "This must be the young lady I've been hearing so much about."

Her grandfather did the introductions. "Rei, this is Kozukuri Akira, of whom we have spoken."

Rei bowed. "I am Hino Rei of Hikawa Shrine."

"Welcome to our temple. I'm glad to finally meet you. I wish we had more time to talk right now, but we should be getting started."

"I understand. I'm grateful for the opportunity," Rei said.

The giant man grinned. "I believe you've more than earned the opportunity, Rei. Please follow me." He turned, and they followed him down the dark corridor. The ancient floorboards sang under his bulk. Rei could smell the age of the place. The corridor was all in wood darkened by the years. The small,  
widely spaced lanterns gave barely enough light to see by. Rei felt like she was in heaven.

The walls gave way to rice paper panels through which lantern light emanated. Kozukuri drew one of them aside. He motioned for Rei to enter, and she did so. She stopped dead as she saw who occupied the small room. A pretty young woman with long raven hair stood smiling at her. She wore shrine maiden robes of the same pattern that Rei wore. "Hello, Rei-chan," she said.

"Onesama!" Rei cried, addressing the woman as her big sister. As was fitting, since she was the closest thing to a sister Rei had. All her carefully maintained dignity melted away and she ran into the woman's outstretched arms. "I thought I wouldn't see you until the ceremony!"

The woman hugged her back. "I just wanted to talk to you first. I see you've finally met my father," she said,  
disengaging herself from Rei's embrace and standing up straight again.

Kozukuri laughed. "And high time I met your young protege,  
Himiko. It would have been sooner, but alas I don't get out of this place much." He looked at Rei. "A shame your father wouldn't let you come here sooner, I would like very much to have more time to talk."

Rei smiled shyly. "I hope I can come visit here many more times, sir."

"I hope so too," Himiko's father said. His expression suddenly became more serious as he addressed his daughter. "Himiko, you have confirmation?"

She nodded. "Yes father, just now. They confirmed the time, so we can begin."

Kozukuri nodded. "Then we'll leave you to prepare." He and Rei's grandfather walked back into the corridor and slid the panel shut behind them.

Himiko knelt down onto the bamboo floor and indicated for Rei to join her. "Rei, I want you to review what we will be doing tonight," she said. Her tone indicated that she was now speaking as Rei's sensei.

"Yes, onesama," Rei said dutifully. She had hoped to be able to visit at least a little with Himiko, whom she hadn't seen in days, but she understood the importance of what was happening. "Last week your father was called by one of the other members of his order. A fellow Temple Guardian in a temple in America."

"Upper New York State," Himiko said, her tone encouraging Rei to be more accurate.

"Yes. One of the shrine maidens there, a Fire Oracle like you,  
had a premonition of a great evil that would enter their land. More readings were done, but the only thing they can guess is that it is a single being of some sort that will enter their land tonight. The Temple Guardian has called his brothers all across the world. Tonight, every temple that is part of the order will have their best Oracle doing a reading. Whatever this creature is, we can find out the most about it at the moment it appears."

Himiko nodded. "That's good. Now remember, I will be the one controlling the fire, so it's important that you strictly be a passive observer. If you try to influence the fire, it could interfere with the reading."

"I understand," Rei said. This was all review of course,  
Himiko was simply making sure she understood what was important.

Himiko lost her stern expression and smiled warmly. She reached out and laid a hand on Rei's shoulder. "You'll do fine,  
Rei-chan. Just empty your mind and open your heart to the reading like you've done before. Observe and remember. Details may be important." She rose to her feet. "It's time. We should join the others."

Rei tried to hide her sudden trepidation, but the frown on Himiko's face told her she had not been successful. Her frown suddenly became a nod of understanding. "Rei, you shouldn't feel intimidated. You will be the youngest one there, but you are the most gifted spiritualist among them, bar none. I am depending upon you to help me the most."

Rei smiled, uplifted by her sensei's confidence in her. "I'll do my best, onesama."

Himiko nodded. She went to slide open the panel, and led Rei out into the hall. They walked farther into the temple, and presently came upon a long row of rice paper panels on their right. Yellow and orange light danced across the paper. The effect was familiar to Rei. When Himiko opened one of the panels, as expected she saw a fire burning in a fire pit in the middle of a large room. Unlike the rest of the temple she had seen, this room looked brand new. The vast array of bamboo mats were bright and clean, as were all the wooden frames and rice paper panels. The ceiling and wood beams were all brightly painted. With a pang of regret, Rei wished she had been able to see this room in its original form. She knew that was irrational: the room probably looked very much like this when it had been built so many centuries ago, they had simply restored it. This was a living temple, after all, not a relic.

About a dozen young shrine maidens sat in two lines before the fire. They watched as Himiko and Rei approached. Rei recognized some of them who had visited her shrine or who worked at shrines Rei had visited or who had trained under Himiko with her. A couple of these nodded in greeting. Some of the others seemed to have figured out who she was, knowing of her by reputation. Their expressions ranged from grudging admiration to open hostility. It was only natural, Rei tried to tell herself. She was the rich man's daughter who was the apple of the sensei's eye. No matter how much she deserved to be here,  
she had to expect this sort of envy. But it still hurt.

She took her place among them, and watched as Himiko sat down before them, facing the fire. The familiar chant began, and Rei slowly gave herself over to the process. Her sense of time was lost, so before she was consciously aware, the line of yellow flames rising up from between the sticks in the fire were transformed into a single large blue flame that danced over the fire pit. The rest of the room and the people around her no longer registered on Rei's consciousness as she lost herself in contemplation of this flame that was fed no longer by simple combustion but rather by the directed energy of Himiko's spirit.

Rei was dimly aware of the passage of time. She had been told that they would be keeping this up until something showed up, or until dawn if need be. The small part of her conscious mind that she allowed to remain active thought about what maintaining this flame must be doing to Himiko. As yet Rei could barely project her spirit into an oracle flame for a few seconds without becoming exhausted. Her sensei obviously had much greater endurance, but still...

Rei was alarmed to see the flame suddenly waver. It became distorted, wildly expanding and contracting, surging this way and than over the fire pit, as if trying to escape. Was Himiko tiring? No, her chanting did not falter for a second, and more importantly Rei could feel Himiko's hold over the flame, solid and unwavering. Rei tried to calm herself and open her spirit to receive the vision, but within the flame there was nothing but random dancing light. There was no vision being projected here, something different was interfering with the fire.

On a hunch, Rei did something she was not supposed to: let her conscious field of vision expand beyond the flame, encompass the space around it. In a flash, she saw what was happening. The flame was unchanged, it was the space around it that seemed to be wavering! The fire pit and the wall beyond it rippled and distorted as if seen through the rushing water of a river. But the phenomenon was clearly centred on the flame itself. Rei had never seen or even heard of anything like this happening, she was utterly baffled. Some of the other shrine maidens, up until now as still and silent as statues, shifted slightly or stifled exclamations, as they too began to realize that something was wrong. Rei suddenly realized that Himiko may not be aware of what was happening: her direct link with the flame must be short-circuiting her awareness of what was going on between it and her. Himiko's single-minded effort to reach out into time and space and draw in a vision was drawing in something else,  
something utterly different. As the distortion around the flame became more intense, Rei started to panic. She desperately wanted to leap forward and shake her sensei out of her trance,  
break the link, put an end to what was happening.

The flame suddenly blazed like the sun, lighting up the entire hall bright as day. Rei threw her arms up over her eyes,  
blinded by the dazzling light. She heard cries of alarm all around her. A high-pitched squeal like acoustic feedback assaulted her ears, quickly building to earsplitting intensity. Rei felt a wave of intense heat wash over her. She threw herself down on the floor and screamed. It was the end of the world, she was going to die, she was sure of it. She lay there,  
shivering and sobbing, arms wrapped over her head, waiting for the end.

It didn't come. But something changed. As her adrenaline rush slowly subsided, Rei became aware of the single astonishing fact that she was still alive. The room was no longer being assaulted by apocalyptic forces. She opened her eyes, tried unsuccessfully to blink away the afterimages that clouded her vision. Her ears were still ringing, but she was slowly becoming aware of sounds around her. Sobbing, desperate chanting, the crackling of the fire.

She looked up. The room was dark again, lit only by the scattered remnants of the fire. There was somebody standing on each side of the fire pit. On the right, a towering giant that could only be Himiko's father. On the left, a tiny figure in a white robe with a shiny bald pate. Grandfather. They must have come into the room while she was recovering from whatever had happened. There was a slender figure standing silhouetted in front of the fire. Himiko. They all seemed to be silently regarding something in the fire pit.

Somebody was standing in the middle of the fire.

Rei blinked, trying to clear her vision, wondering if her eyes were playing tricks on her. But no, it was a woman and she was definitely standing in the fire. Her tall, lithe form was hugged tightly by some dark skintight outfit that covered her to the neck. She didn't seem at all concerned about the flames licking at her shins. It didn't seem to be hurting her at all. She appeared more concerned with the people standing around her.  
She crouched in a defensive stance, her head darting about wildly as she seemed to try taking in all her surroundings at once. Rei couldn't get a good look at her face in this light and with her still recovering retinas, just an aquiline profile and a single long braid of hair that swung about the back of her neck at each turn of her head.

The woman suddenly looked right at Himiko, pointed to her and said something. The voice was harsh, loud, commanding, yet seemed desperate, nearly panicked. But the words were gibberish. It sounded vaguely like English.

Rei saw Himiko shake her head. "I'm sorry, I don't understand," she said. Himiko's voice was expressionless, as if she were still in shock. Rei knew that Himiko was fluent in English, if she couldn't understand the woman then...

Suddenly the woman leaped out of the fire pit and landed right in front of Himiko. She grabbed the front of Himiko's robe in one hand and effortlessly lifted her into the air. She looked up at Himiko's face and repeated whatever she had said before,  
this time almost screaming.

Some of the other shrine maidens were just starting to stand and cry out in alarm when an immense shadow flew straight at the woman. Not a shadow, Himiko's father. How could he have moved so fast, Rei thought? In an instant he had become a towering juggernaut rushing to steamroll the intruder that threatened his daughter.

Rei didn't even see it. There was just a blur of motion where the woman used to be, a meaty impact and the sickening sound of bones cracking. Himiko's father was suddenly flying in the opposite direction, limbs flailing. He fell heavily to the floor.

There was motion again, and Rei looked to see that the woman had not even released Himiko. But this time the motion was from Himiko. She pulled her hand back from the woman's face, and Rei could see that she had placed a ward there. The little white sheet with a glyph of power written on it stuck to her forehead,  
hanging down in front of her eyes.

With a howl, the woman grabbed the ward with her free hand and swept it away. It had either hurt her or simply enraged her. Her arm became a blur and Himiko's head snapped back with a horrible cracking sound, her body now flying through the air. She landed amongst the scattering, screaming shrine maidens. Himiko's head lolled to one side at an impossible angle, her eyes open but unseeing. Rei could just stare wide-eyed, frozen in shock. Her child's mind could not grasp what she was seeing,  
her carefully nurtured mental discipline shattered by the impossible events happening around her.

What was left of her conscious mind was attracted by the sound of several of the sliding panels to her left snapping open. She looked to see a group of men carrying big bo sticks pour into the room. They were wearing simple yukatas and in bare feet, as if they had just been roused from their sleep.

None of them had taken more than two steps into the room when there was a bright flash and a loud crack like the discharge of an immense condenser. An impossibly bright beam touched one of the men and he disappeared behind a blue-white fireball.

Rei snapped her head around to see where the beam came from. Standing just a few meters from Rei, the woman was pointing something like a gun at the oncoming men. As she watched, the woman adjusted her aim, fired again. And again. Rei sat transfixed as each flash of light illuminated the woman's face. A beautiful, ice-chiselled triangular face, copper hair, green eyes, full lips. But the eyes were wild, the lips curled back in a wolf-grin, the face twisted in a berserker's ecstacy.

Somebody suddenly grabbed Rei from behind, lifting her roughly up off the floor. Still in shock, she put up no resistance. Short but powerful arms crushed her into the folds of a white robe. A familiar voice breathed desperate words of prayer between gasps for air. Grandfather. He was running with her. She couldn't see well as she was jostled about, but she could see that flames were engulfing the part of the room where the men had been. The ceiling was hidden behind billowing black smoke that threatened to smother them.

Her grandfather crashed straight through a rice paper and wood-frame panel on the other side of the room, hardly slowing down. Rei was only dimly aware of being carried down a corridor lit only by the spreading flames, out onto the grounds, into the inky black woods that blotted out the light from the inferno behind them, blotted out even the dim starlight. Her mind was filled with but a single vision. In the darkness, what stood before her eyes was that predatory face, grinning like a death mask. The face that would come to her in her dreams and make her wake up screaming for years to come.

*****

Gwendolyn Ingolfsson stepped into the elevator at the base of Tokyo Tower along with the rest of the people who had been waiting. The elevator doll, a young uniformed woman who had perfected the art of her job, moved her arm out of the doorway with robot precision, and with a high voice showing no more expression than a talking computer cautioned passengers to stand clear of the closing doors.

Polite silence descended upon the elevator car as it raced up to the observation deck. Gwen stood quietly as she sent a wave of pheromones into the air. She already had a pretty good idea what effect they would have on the humans, this was more play than it was experiment. She could already hear some of the heartbeats around her quickening. The elevator doll, who had been still as death, was now fidgeting and glancing around the room. She met Gwen's eyes, and returned her friendly smile. She seemed to suddenly remember she was on duty, and with an effort she averted her eyes and put on the expressionless face her job demanded. She did well, the only outward change was the flush slowly spreading from her cheeks to the rest of her face.

The elevator chimed, the doors opened, and with a quiver in her voice only Gwen was conscious of the elevator doll cautioned the passengers to watch their step when exiting. They all filed out, and Gwen walked straight to the window that wrapped around the observation deck. She was amused to find that most of the people were involuntarily clustering around the part of the window she had walked to. Without knowing why, they seemed to want to be near her. Freed of the confined social space of the elevator, couples and families were busy telling each other about how nice the view was, trying to distract themselves from their inexplicably raging hormones, trying to pretend that Gwen wasn't there.

Even without the benefit of chemicals, Gwen would naturally attract attention, especially in this country. She was over six feet tall, and even with the heavy jeans, cotton shirt and black leather jacket she wore over her thin body armour it was still obvious she had a body to kill for. And her face had a foxlike predatory look that seemed to transfix anyone here who met her lustrous green eyes.

She leaned on the railing and looked out over the city. It was early spring, so the rainy season hadn't started yet. The noonday sun bathed the city through a scattering of small clouds. Tokyo stretched out as far as the eye could see. A mass of humanity going out to the horizon.

Eight million people. It was hard to believe, but that's what the almanac had said. In the past weeks, Gwen had mastered enough of the language to be able to read things like newspapers or simple reference books with little difficulty. But as she could read more and more, what she found out became more and more unbelievable. She was on the Japan islands, late nineteen eighties. She'd been hurled over four hundred years into the past. But not her past. A different one. Just how different became more apparent as she had been able to read more and more advanced history books. The divergence with the history she knew started at least two hundred years ago. In her history,  
defeated loyalists from the American Revolutionary War had taken sail to southern Africa, to start a new nation there. They were soon joined by refugees from an Iceland devastated by massive volcanic activity. Other groups of dispossessed Europeans joined them. They came to call themselves the Draka, and they slowly carved out an empire built on the slave labour of the local inhabitants. An empire called the Domination that had swept up through Africa and the Middle East and arrived in Europe just in time to swallow the Third Reich whole. By this time, the nineteen eighties, The Domination had swept through most of Eurasia, adding its inhabitants to the millions of serfs who laboured for their harsh masters, the Draka.

But on this world, in this universe, none of that had happened.  
Her country, her people, did not exist.

She thought back to where this had all started. Four hundred years after the Final War that had left the Draka undisputed masters of the Solar System, they were beginning the molehole experiments that they hoped would let them travel faster than light. Gwen had been supervising such an experiment, in a facility buried deep under Manhattan Island. Something had gone wrong. The molehole had gone out of control. Gwen had been directing the evacuation of the facility when the nexus of the molehole had suddenly seemed to leap out at her and...

She suppressed a shiver as memories of those horrible first days came flooding back. The blinding flash. Landing in the middle of a wood fire. The musky smell of feral, undomesticated humans all around her. The strange room. The humans closing in on her, the smell of their fear and aggression overpowering. Her attempt to get control of the situation backfiring. That thing the woman had slapped on her that seemed to rip into her soul, that she thought must be a contact nerve poison. Panic. Lashing out. Running.

She had wandered further into the mountains, expecting pursuit.  
None had come. She lived off the land for a few days, prey falling easily to her improvised weapons. Then she had descended upon a small village. At night, when her enhanced senses would give her the advantage. She looked, listened and learned. Learned enough to confirm that she was no longer on the Earth she knew. She stole books and some portable electronics and spent time up in her makeshift shelter teaching herself the language and exploring the airwaves of this new world.

She kidnapped a local inhabitant, questioned him long enough to convince herself that she was proficient enough to communicate with the locals. She also learned that these undomesticated humans were not as easily dominated as the genetically engineered slaves back home were. The man had actually tried to escape. Gwendolyn had found that the local bamboo made a serviceable field expedient for the traditional Draka form of impalement. It had been four hundred years since she had dealt with wild humans, she had forgotten how fragile they could be. It had only taken him a few hours to die.

It was time to move on to the big city.

She needed money. That wasn't difficult. Rich Tokyo businessmen with fat wallets seemed to have a habit of staggering through alleys late at night after bouts of drinking.  
Easy prey, good enough to get her lodging, food and some better clothes.

But she had no intention of living at a subsistence level. She had bigger plans.

The molehole accident had confirmed for her what their scientists had suspected for decades: there really were parallel universes, they weren't just an abstract byproduct of quantum equations. And more importantly, it was possible to travel between them. Her duty was clear. She had to try to get back to her people and give them this information. If the molehole apparatus and its experimental data had been destroyed, they may not be aware of what had happened. There could be no thought of building a molehole generator in this primitive, backward world.  
But she just might be able to build a beacon, something to send a signal back to her own timeline, communicate with her people,  
get them to open up a more stable molehole to this timeline. The transducer implanted in her brain had complete information on all the necessary technology. It would probably take years to learn how to function in this world, gather the required resources, develop new technologies and build the actual beacon.  
But to a four hundred year old Drakon who was genetically programmed to never age, a few years was nothing. It would be fun. And when it was done, her people would have a whole new world, a whole new universe, to conquer.

Gwendolyn grinned as she surveyed her new hunting ground. Involuntarily, she released a rather different set of pheromones into the air. Moments later, the people who were still clustered around her grew restless and nervous. Within a minute they all found some excuse to move to another part of the observation deck.

Part One

"Well finally this line is starting to move!" Usagi said. "We've been standing here so long my legs are starting to get cramps." She shifted her weight from one foot to the other for emphasis, which set her long pigtails swaying.

"Well, if we'd come any later we probably wouldn't have gotten in at all," Rei said. "Look at all the people in front of us."

"Doesn't seem like that many," Makoto said, going up on her toes and looking over the line of people between them and the entrance.

"This 3D theatre is smaller than most regular movie theatres,"  
Ami reminded her. "Inside it looks more like an Omnimax theatre, though the technology is a lot different."

"Does that mean it'll look crummy if we don't get good seats?"  
Minako asked, sounding very concerned. She had been the one who persuaded them all to come to the opening night performance, she was anxious the event turn out well for them.

"I don't think so," Ami assured her. "With this 3D system,  
apparently it looks exactly the same no matter where you sit. And the acoustics are supposed to be pretty revolutionary too,  
so it will sound pretty much the same from any seat."

"If you know so much, can you tell us anything more about the movie?" Usagi asked her.

"Not really, I was reading about the 3D system in an electronics magazine in the library."

"They've been pretty hush-hush about the movie itself," Minako confirmed. "About all I know is its an SF action picture taking place in Tokyo in 1999."

"How original," Rei said dryly. "Let me guess, the end of the world is coming and they're going to avoid it by the skin of their teeth."

Minako shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. But that reminds me, I did find something on the company that makes this 3D system." She rummaged around in her large cloth tote bag,  
pulled out a magazine and started leafing through it.

Makoto looked over her shoulder. "Minako, since when did you start reading Business Week?"

"I borrowed this from my dad," Minako said, still flipping through the magazine. "Ah, here it is! Rising Wind Technologies."

"Rather hubristic name," Rei commented.

Minako scanned the article, confirming her information. "Incorporated in Japan six years ago by a German national with dual citizenship named... Guenudorin Ingorufuson," she read,  
rolling her tongue around the difficult foreign name. "One of the fastest growth records of any high technology company in the world. Already sales of over a billion yen last year,  
remarkable for such a new company."

"Minako." They all looked at Usagi who was glaring at Minako,  
her arms crossed imperiously in front of her. "Is there some particular reason we are supposed to care about all this?"

Minako grinned. "I'm going to be meeting with Ingolfsson-san next week."

"What?" her friends all exclaimed in perfect unison.

Minako seemed to delight in their surprise. "Her company is holding a luncheon welcoming new business partners. The company my dad works for just signed a big contract with Rising Wind, so we got invited!"

"What do you mean *we*? You mean you too?" Makoto asked.

"And my mom. We all got these cool invitation cards in the mail."

"Isn't that unusual? I mean, inviting your dad's whole family like that?" Rei asked.

"From what my dad tells me, there are a lot of unusual things about the way Rising Wind does business."

"Minako, doesn't your dad have more of an engineering background?" Ami asked.

Minako nodded. "Yes, he does technology assessments of venture capital proposals."

"Well, don't they usually just invite, you know, the bean counter types to these luncheons?" Ami asked.

"Like I said, the way Rising Wind does business is a lot different. I've never seen my dad get so excited about a project. He can't tell me any details, but it sounds like if it works out the way he thinks, it will be one of the biggest payoffs his company ever had. A real feather in his cap!"

Makoto looked at the magazine Minako was still holding. "Hey,  
is that a picture of what's-her-name, Ingolfsomething?"

"Yes, that's her," Minako answered, holding the magazine out to her.

Makoto took it. "Whoa, you're telling me *she* is the President of some big company? Man, nobody that smart has a right to look that gorgeous." She didn't notice that Ami was suddenly glaring at her.

Makoto passed the magazine on to Usagi, who suddenly seemed more interested in Business Week now that there was a picture to look at. "Are you going to need to shop for a new dress?"  
Makoto asked Minako.

"Nope, I'm going to wear the pink one."

"Which one?" Usagi, Ami and Makoto asked in unison. Minako had a closet full of pink dresses.

"Well..." Minako began, then stopped, a frown of concern suddenly coming to her face. "Rei, is something wrong?"

The other three girls all turned to look at Rei. She was holding the magazine Usagi had just handed her, staring at it with a look of primal fear. All the colour had drained from her face. She did not seem to be at all aware of her surroundings.

Makoto took her by the shoulder, gave her a gentle shake. "Hey girl, you still with us?"

Rei started, as if snapping out of a trance. She looked around, suddenly aware that she was the centre of attention. Still looking rather confused, she mumbled "It's nothing, I'm fine."

"You sure didn't look fine," Makoto said, unconvinced.

Rei managed a weak smile. "I just felt a sudden chill, I may be coming down with something."

"Maybe you should go home," Ami suggested.

"No, really I'm fine. It just came and went."

"Well, if you say so," Makoto said, still eying Rei suspiciously. She glanced down the line of people. "You know,  
I do believe we're getting closer."

A few minutes later they picked up their tickets and headed into the theatre. As Ami had said, it looked something like an Omnimax, or maybe a planetarium tilted at an angle. They managed to find five seats in a row. Presently, the lights went down and chatter died down. Then the screen above them lit up and hundreds of people gasped in unison.

You could reach out and touch it. In fact, some people in the audience were trying to do just that... obviously to no avail. They were racing down a back alley in a slum of some Western city, and it was like they were really *there*. They were following a squad of soldiers who were running, desperately trying to escape from something. As they ran from street to street, there were signs of recent fighting all around them,  
dead bodies, burning vehicles, crater-riddled buildings. Suddenly bolts of searing white light ripped through the squad. People in the audience screamed as they seemed to see men die right in front of them. In seconds, the entire squad lay dead before them, horrible burns marking where they had been shot. Noises came from the right, where the laster bolts had come from. As one, the audience all turned their heads to see what it was. Four giant baboons loped towards them. They were clad head to foot in segmented black armour. They carried impossibly large guns in their great, hairy claws. They moved with the too-perfect precision that suggested computer-generated images. Still, people shrank back in their seats as the creatures seemed to tower over them. One of them bent down and snuffled at one of the dead soldiers. It shouldered its weapon, reached down to the body, and with one quick motion tore an arm off. There was probably not as much blood as there would have been had this happened in real life. The creature began to gnaw at the arm,  
the picture froze, and with a flourish of music the title of the picture materialized in front of the audience. The Final War.

A narrator gave the background as various scenes played out before them. In 1999, a group of people in a secret lab enhanced themselves genetically, and declared themselves the Master Race. With their superior intelligence, they quickly developed advanced weapons and genetically enhanced various animals to act as their semi-intelligent slave soldiers. They had swept across the world in a matter of months, and now they were poised to invade Japan.

The members of the self proclaimed Master Race were played by the usual muscle-bound denizens of cheap action movies, the ones with the Greek God look. But the real star of the show was their leader, who never left his high-tech throne. Subtle hints showed that his image was computer generated, but it was certainly convincing. His inhuman leopard-like grace made the human actors look clumsy and wimpy by comparison.

The action quickly moved to Tokyo, where the protagonists in the Japanese Self Defense Force fought a losing battle with the advancing demi-human slave soldiers and their Master Race officers. A series of elaborate firefights were staged at various famous locations within the city.

The main protagonists, two JSDF officers, found themselves desperately running through the subway tunnels to a hidden entrance to the secret JSDF base under Mount Fuji (a development that elicited a groan from more than one member of the audience). They found the entrance, the huge door swung aside and on the other side stood none other than the leader of the Master Race. He calmly told them that his forces overran the base hours ago. He levelled a laser pistol at the audience,  
grinning, his green eyes sparkling. "Long live the Master Race." Bang. Fade to black.

The lights came up. People started to stir. There was excited talk all over the place, punctuated by kids exclaiming "That was sooo coool!"

Makoto stood up and stretched. "Well, that looked pretty neat,  
but the story was kind of... hey!"

Her friends, and people around them, started at her exclamation. She was looking at Rei, who was slumped down in her seat, eyes closed.

Ami, who was sitting beside her, quickly got out of her seat and bent over her friend. She took Rei by the shoulders and gently shook her. "Rei, can you hear me? Are you okay?" People around them were staring.

"How long has she been like that?" Minako asked.

Usagi, who had been sitting on Rei's other side, said "She practically jumped out of her seat when that guy shot his gun just now. She must have fainted after that." She was holding Rei's hand. Like Ami, she was trying to get some response out of her friend.

The raven-haired girl stirred, groaned. Her eyes fluttered open. "Ami...?" she said weakly.

Ami put the back of her hand over Rei's forehead. "Your temperature seems more or less normal. How are you feeling?"

"Not too good. What happened, did I fall asleep?"

"No, you fainted," Usagi said. "Was it because of that guy shooting at us?"

Rei didn't seem to understand the question. "Umm... I don't remember."

"Just try to relax," Ami said, now holding her other hand. "When you feel up to moving, we'll take you to a doctor."

"I see a nurse coming," Minako said. "Looks like they were expecting something like this to happen."

Makoto watched her stricken friend with a worried look on her face. Rei would be the last one she'd expect to faint dead away just over a scary movie. There was something very wrong here.

*****

Gwen stepped into the limousine and sat down facing the back of the car as the attendant closed the door. She rapped twice on the window that separated them from the driver's section. The car pulled smoothly out of her office's underground garage and onto the street.

She checked herself in a mirror, smoothed out her black dress and glanced at the man seated opposite her. "We don't have much time, so give me the short version," she said without preamble.

"Yes Mistress," he said. Doctor Van Kreveld was a short, thin man with unkempt greying hair that went down to his shoulders. He wore a rumpled wool suit without a tie. To Gwen's enhanced olfactory, he smelled awful. It was a testament to his abilities that Gwen was content to put up with him exactly as he was. He cleared his throat elaborately. "This morning I and my staff went over the results of the diagnostics they ran at the Hakone site yesterday. We are satisfied that the magnetic containment system is working according to specifications. We are recommending that we sign off with the contractor and proceed with system integration testing."

Gwen nodded. "Fine. We'll get the contractor's people moved out of the beacon facility today so that your staff can take up residence as soon as possible. I want that to be tomorrow."

Van Kreveld bowed. "I don't foresee any difficulty with that."  
He frowned as he saw a slightly wistful look pas across Gwen's face. He had long since learned to become well attuned to her moods. "Was there anything else you wanted to ask, Mistress?"

Gwen smiled. "Now that we're so close, I find myself once again thinking on our original dilemma."

"I see." That could mean only one thing. The molehole beacon they were building seemed to be perfect in every way. There was nothing left now but to do final tests to see that all the systems worked together, then to finally switch on the beacon at full power and wait for a response from Gwen's people. But in all this, they had never been able to resolve the original dilemma Gwen spoke of.

Why had she disappeared in Manhattan Island and appeared in Hakone?

"Despite all that you have shown me, the physics behind the molehole is still beyond me, Mistress."

"Makes two of us," Gwen said, grinning. Van Kreveld was one of the most gifted physicists on the planet, but was about four hundred years out of his element. And Gwen was no physicist at all. They were simply collaborating to build a device designed by minds greater than their own.

Gwen turned to face the young woman whom up until now the two of them had been ignoring. "Yohko, any cancellations for the luncheon since we last talked?"

"No, Mistress," her executive secretary answered immediately,  
having been awaiting permission to speak. They were all speaking in English, the default language of Gwen's inner circle. Like the other twenty or so members of her inner circle, these two were aware of what she was and what she was planning to do. Each of them was firmly under her domination,  
and each had been lured by a particular plum that Gwen had dangled before them. For Van Kreveld, a level of understanding of the physical world he had never dreamed of. For Yohko, a high position in the brave new world to come. For others, the promise of youth or health from the geneticists of the Final Society, or simply the promise of power.

Each of them had been Fausted in one way or another.

"Fine. The two of us will be spending most of our time at the Hakone site starting this week, so we'll have a lot of work wrapping up various things in Tokyo today and tomorrow. Let's go over the schedule."

"Yes, Mistress," Yohko said, picking up her organizer.

*****

The introductory speeches having been much shorter than was normal for such a luncheon, all the people in the banquet hall were soon delving into their first course. Nobody seemed to have a problem with Gwen's fast-paced approach. Gwen simply couldn't stomach the way that the formal style of the Japanese language could draw out a simple declarative sentence into something three times as long as it needed to be. Still, there were some aspects of the language she simply adored. Especially the way that different levels of politeness and deference were built right in to the structure of the language. It seemed to be geared specifically towards maintaining hierarchy. Ideal for the Final Society, Gwen thought. Ironic that this language was extinct in her timeline. Not that such a thing would be of any use in her time. The Final Society maintained its hierarchy with genetics and hormones. The Draka's various engineered slave races were simply designed to be faithful.

As she ate, Gwen had Yohko point out various people she would be interested in meeting later when they were mingling, so that she could identify them by sight. Gwen could not exert the same level of chemical control over these feral humans as she could over the Homo Servus back home. But her physical presence and pheromones could still exert a powerful influence. Personal meetings with potential business partners, even if very brief,  
could be useful.

Her eyes lingered on one occupant of a table further down the hall. She leaned over to her secretary. "Yohko. Third table from the right, second from the back, seated in the middle,  
facing us. Who is that gorgeous creature?"

Yohko squinted. It was quite far away for human eyes to see clearly. "You mean the child? I believe that is Mister Aino's daughter. I don't recall her name."

Gwen smiled. It still amused her how they referred to young men and women as children. In Draka society it had always simply been assumed that adulthood started at sexual maturity. "You mean she's their natural daughter? Remarkable, her hair is so light, almost blonde."

"Yes, it is unusual." Yohko glanced at her mistress' face,  
decided there was nothing in her expression indicating they should pursue this any further. They went back to discussing tomorrow's agenda.

When the lunch was done, the guests were invited to move to a showroom that had been set up by Rising Wind in the accompanying hall. As they wandered through the hall, looking at the displays and munching dainties, Gwen weaved her way through them, working her subtle magic on one person here and another person there. As well as greasing the wheels of Rising Wind business, she was always on the lookout for people valuable enough, pliable enough and amoral enough to bring into her inner circle.

Gwen suddenly came upon the young woman she had noticed in the banquet hall. She was standing on her own, admiring a painting.  
It was one of Gwen's. As a personal touch, Gwen would often have one or two of her oil paintings put up in a Rising Wind showroom. This was one of her favourites. It showed two nude women dancing in a garden full of flowers and blossoming trees. As Gwen approached, she took in the girl's scent. It was more remarkable even than her exotic beauty. Behind the sharp human scent there was a hint of the orderly sweetness that she usually associated with one of the carefully engineered races of her own world. She had not encountered it's like since arriving in this world, not among the thousands of humans she had scented. It was almost like a taste of home. Gwen wondered if she were imagining things, if this was just a bout of homesickness.

"Good day, Aino-san," Gwen said from beside and slightly behind her.

The girl turned to look at her. "Good day," she said automatically, her eyes slowly widening and her heart racing as she realized who was talking to her.

"I'm Gwendolyn Ingolfsson of Rising Wind. Thank you for coming to our luncheon."

The girl stepped around to face her fully and bowed. "I am Aino Minako. Thank you very much for inviting me."

"Do you like the painting, Minako?" Gwen asked.

"Yes, very much. The two women seem to resemble you. Are they relatives?"

"Very perceptive. Yes, the one on the left is my mother, the other is a more distant relative."

"They're very beautiful," Minako said. Gwen could hear her subvocalize what she was thinking: *You're displaying a nude of your mother?*

"People seem to find it odd we would wander around our garden in the nude, we never really thought much about it." Gwen immediately chided herself for involuntarily responding to Minako's subvocalization. It would probably scare her.

But Minako didn't seem the least put off by what must appear to her as mind reading. In fact, Gwen could hear that her heart rate was already back down to normal. She suddenly realized that she had been releasing pheromones to soothe Minako's nervousness. The girl was responding to it almost as effectively as a Homo Servus would. "Your family must be very close," Minako said.

"Well, I'm living very far from my family now, but yes, we've always been close."

"What is the dance they're doing? It looks unusual." The two women were executing a leap high in the air, their arms outstretched, the only contact between them being the fingertips of each hand.

"Ah, that's something we call shadow dancing. Do you dance at all?"

"No," Minako answered. Gwen perceived in her tone some embarrassing experience that had prompted her to avoid at least some kind of dancing like the plague. "About the closest thing to dancing I do is Tai Chi. I spend a lot of my time studying martial arts, you see."

"Really? Well, shadow dancing is actually less a dance than it is an extension of martial arts training. The two disciplines are closer than you might think. You shouldn't let a bad experience prevent you from expanding your horizons." There I go again, Gwen thought. And why am I suddenly giving this motherly advice to her? The answer came immediately: my protective instinct is kicking in. I'm responding as I would to a Servus who is looking to me for guidance.

"I've never heard of shadow dancing, is there some place in the city that teaches it?"

Gwen chuckled. "Right now I'm probably the only person in Japan who knows anything about it." An instant later she could read Minako's reaction: disappointment, and wanting a favour she dare not ask. It made no sense, she had no time but... she was very close to her ultimate goal now, and she felt like just working with her instinct this one time. "I'll tell you what,"  
she said, opening the elegant little black belt pouch at her waist and drawing out a calling card. She handed it to Minako,  
who accepted it. "I've built a villa for myself in the mountains around Hakone, and I'll be moving in there this week. If you're not busy this weekend, I'd love for you to come help me break in my new workout room. It's just a couple of hours by train. If you've been diligently in your martial arts training,  
we can have you shadow dancing in no time."

"Oh, I couldn't..."

"Oh, don't worry about how busy you think I am. As you can see," she waved at the painting in front of them, "I always find time for the finer things in life. And it will be a lot more fun for me, having a partner to work out with."

Minako smiled contentedly, calmed by Gwen's verbal reassurance and her chemical lullaby. "Thank you Ingolfsson-san, I'd love to."

"Oh do call me Gwen, my full name is such a mouthful. I'll tell my people to expect a call from you. Just let them know when you can make it to Hakone station, they'll send a car for you. We have plenty of room, so I hope you'll pack an overnight bag, I'd love to have you stay for the weekend." She glanced at her watch. "Well, I really should be going now. If I don't do some more schmoozing, my secretary will have kittens."

*****

Kenneth Lafarge slid open the blind that had been covering the window next to his first-class seat, and looked down at the Pacific Ocean. He glanced at the map on the overhead television that charted the progress of the JAL 747. Not too long now. Just another hour or so to Narita. Then the hunt could begin anew.

He reached for the seat in front of him and pulled the issue of Business Week out of the pocket. It was already open to the feature article on Rising Wind Technologies. He glared at the photograph of their CEO. His first good look at the Snake that meant to swallow up this world whole.

He had spent six years in America, the homeland of his ancestors. The homeland the Snakes had driven them out of four hundred years ago. Six years, probing, searching, looking for any sign of the Snake's activity. He had almost begun to think that it wasn't here at all. That it had died in the molehole accident, or had been somehow killed soon after arriving here. But then the intelligent agents he had cruising the net started bringing in reports from the other side of the world. A rapidly rising high technology company founded seven years ago. Large purchases of certain exotic rare elements. Contracts for very sophisticated magnetic containment devices.

Then he finally managed to find a photograph of the elusive Gwendolyn Ingolfsson. Instantly, he knew he had found his target.

The man next to him leaned over to look at the magazine. "She looks altogether too young to have founded a company like that seven years ago."

Lafarge smiled. "Oh, these photographs can be too flattering,  
Takeda-san. I imagine she's quite a bit older than she appears." Maybe by centuries, he thought. Lafarge was now fluent enough in Japanese to have had little difficulty starting up a conversation with the Japanese businessman seated next to him on the flight from Los Angeles. His weeks of crash learning had paid off. As they talked, he had been more than a little dismayed to discover that Rising Wind Technologies had long since become a household name among the business class in the Japan islands.

How could I have let this get so far, he wondered? How could I have overlooked it for so long? The answer was obvious: he had been looking in the wrong space. The Samothracian stealth ships hiding at the edge of the Solar System had gotten clear readings on the molehole accident. A single figure, massing almost a hundred kilos, displaced four hundred years back in time, into this timeline. It should have appeared in Manhattan. Assuming it had figured out what had happened, it would be trying to build a beacon in the same place, for the greatest likelihood of success.

But all indications were that the Snake was building its beacon in Hakone.

Even though the Samothracians were ahead of the Draka in molehole technology, there was still much they did not understand about the phenomenon. So Lafarge had to assume that either the Snake had appeared in Japan or had some legitimate reason to believe that the beacon should be built there.

"It seems to be a big mystery where she got her start," Takeda continued. "Some rich German family nobody has heard of. Well,  
if she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, she's certainly succeeded in turning it to gold."

Lafarge grinned. "Transmutation? Considering the stuff her company has come out with lately, I wouldn't put it past them."

Takeda chuckled. "Just before I left Los Angeles, my son dragged me to see the English version of that dreadful movie they're using to showcase their 3D system. Nice graphics, but what a waste of supercomputer bandwidth."

"I couldn't agree more," Lafarge said, suppressing a shudder. After hearing about it, he had gone to see it himself. The Final War. It had been like a warped parody of everything he had ever heard about the final conflict that had driven his people from the solar system, all brought to life in front of him. Too close to be coincidence, the Snake must have had some hand in its making. A sort of monumental joke, thumbing its nose at the world saying "This is what we have in store for you." Either this Snake was particularly reckless about attracting attention, or it simply hadn't considered that the Samothracians might be able to send an agent into this timeline to hunt it down.

"So have you given more thought to where you plan on touring after you've found a place to stay in Tokyo?" Takeda asked him.

"I've heard that Hakone and the mountains around it are very nice," the Samothracian cyborg warrior answered. "You were telling me that you've vacationed there, can you recommend a good guidebook?"

*****

Minako sighed as she lowered herself into the pool. "That feels so good! I don't think I'll ever be able to drag myself out of here."

Gwen smiled at her from the other side of the pool, where she sat half immersed in the water with her arms spread out on the rim of the white marble bathing pool on either side of her. "Are your muscles still aching?"

"No, that massage you gave me did the trick. It was really nice of you."

"Well, I really drove you hard today, I think you earned a reward. You looked about ready to drop."

"I was!" Minako exclaimed. "I thought I was in good shape,  
but there I was half dead and you hadn't even broken a sweat!" Once again she looked enviously at Gwen's form. Her muscles looked inhumanly well developed. Not in a muscle-bound way,  
more like the way she would imagine a panther transformed into human form.

Gwen chuckled. "Well, I've got just a few more years of training under my belt than you. But don't feel bad, you did very well today. You've got the basic patterns mastered, I think it's just a matter of practicing to learn the variations,  
get your timing right and learn to anticipate your partner's moves."

"You're right about one thing, it's more like a sparring match than a dance. Was it your mother who taught you?"

"No, I learned it from others. After her lover passed away, my mother pretty much gave up the dancing part of her training."

Minako blinked, suddenly confused. "Her lover? Are you talking about your father?"

"No, I mean the other woman in the painting," Gwen said casually.

"Oh." Minako felt herself blushing. Grasping for something to say, she asked, "Gwen, I have a couple of friends who I sometimes train with, would it be okay if I showed them the basics of shadow dancing?"

"Of course, it's always good to work with a variety of partners. I'll have somebody run off a copy of that tape we were using, the music you've got over here just isn't right for it."

"Thank you. I really liked the music, I've never heard anything like it."

"I put that together on a synthesizer I've got in my home in Tokyo."

"You *wrote* it?" Minako asked, astonished to find yet another of Gwen's talents she didn't know about.

"It's not exactly original, I just did variations on some music I had heard back home. The originals are... hard to obtain."

"Did you write it to help you from getting homesick?" Minako asked.

"I suppose so," Gwen said wistfully. "I don't regret being here, not by any means. I can accomplish things here that I couldn't back home, and I think I've made a pretty good life for myself here so far. But yes, sometimes I do miss the friends I left behind."

Gwen looks so sad, Minako thought. She suddenly regretted asking her about her home. "I'm sorry, I wish I could say I understand how you feel. I couldn't imagine being separated from my friends."

Gwen gave Minako an odd, but still friendly look. She suddenly sank down into the water and moved to the centre of the small pool, just in front of Minako. She sat down on the bottom and wrapped her arms around her knees. "So tell me a bit about your friends, it sounds like they're more than just sparring partners."

"There are four girls I mostly hang around with. There's Usagi, she can be a bit of a clumsy ditz. But she's the sweetest person I've ever met, nobody could ask for a nicer friend. Ami is the smart one, a real genius, always top of the class. But she's not stuck up about it, not competitive or anything. She helps me out with my schoolwork a lot. Then there's Rei, she's always fighting with Usagi. It's not that she's mean, Usagi just does some dumb things sometimes. Rei's a shrine maiden, so she's very spiritual. And really pretty, too.  
Makoto is the one I train with mostly. She can be a bit short tempered, in fact she was thrown out of her last school for fighting. But she's actually very sweet. And she's really tall and graceful, I get jealous of her sometimes."

"You're lucky to have such a nice group of friends to grow up with," Gwen said.

"I know," Minako said. "We all met just over the past few months actually, but it's like I've known them all my life,  
they're all very dear to me."

"Sounds that way. So are you sleeping with any of them yet?"

It took a couple of seconds for Minako to realize what Gwen was asking. She abruptly averted her eyes. "No, of course not,"  
she answered almost involuntarily. She could feel herself blushing again. Memories of events following the fall of the Death Busters came flooding back. Was she a liar? No, what she and Ami had shared then had simply been about being alive at a time when they had fully expected not to be. That didn't count.  
She looked back at Gwen, who was regarding her with a look of slight amusement. Not mocking, more like a half-hidden smile between friends who shared a secret. Minako couldn't shake the unsettling feeling that Gwen was reading her mind.

"That's surprising, an attractive girl like you must be very popular. I was sleeping with one of my girlfriends from the age of fourteen. When I was growing up that wasn't at all unusual."

Minako didn't know how to take this. She wasn't exactly an expert on German society, but she had certainly never heard anything like that. "I guess things are a little different in Japan," was all she could think to say.

"Interesting. Any boyfriends yet?"

"No, between my school and my training, I don't really have time for dating."

"Well, I suppose that's all right. Personally, I don't think girls should start getting involved with boys until they're at least seventeen, though I suppose I'm a bit of an old obasan in that regard... what's so funny?"

Minako was giggling uncontrollably. She couldn't help it, it was such a blessed release of tension after she was feeling so nervous under Gwen's scrutiny. Presently, she got her breathing under control. "I'm really sorry Gwen, for some reason it was just so funny hearing you call yourself obasan. You're the last person in the world I would call that."

"I guess I should be happy about that." She suddenly took Minako's hand, held it just above the water. "Would you prefer to call me onesama?"

Minako was at a loss for words, unsure what Gwen meant. And she was wondering why her heart hadn't stopped pounding now that her fit of laughing was done. Her whole body felt flushed. Had she simply been in the hot water too long? Her body was racing,  
but her mind was shutting down. For some reason, the only important thing seemed to be for her to give Gwen the answer she wanted.

"Yes, onesama," she answered, squeezing her hand. All she could see was Gwen's face, it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

Gwen reached out, pulled Minako to her and gave her a long,  
passionate kiss. Minako's higher brain functions shut down with the abruptness of a fuse being tripped.

*****

Rei completed the final part of the tea ceremony, placing the cup in front of her grandfather and bowing. Her grandfather picked up the cup, turned it twice in his hand, and drank from it. When he was done, he put the cup back onto the bamboo floor and bowed. When he raised his head again, his serene expression was gone and he was grinning ear to hear. He winked at her. "Delicious as always, Rei. You haven't lost your touch."

"Thanks Grandpa," Rei said, also relaxing from the formality of the ceremony. "I guess it has been a while since I treated you.  
I'm glad you liked it."

"So what's the occasion?" her grandfather asked, getting into a more comfortable position.

"Well, I just wanted to talk to you about something," Rei answered hesitantly.

"Hmm. Are you having problems in your relationship with Yuichirou?"

"Grandpa!" She brandished the priceless ladle of the shrine's finest tea set threateningly.

"Okay, okay!" her grandfather said soothingly, his hands raised protectively. "So it's not that. What, then?"

Rei's righteous indignation melted away. She put down the ladle and averted her eyes. "It's about what happened in..."  
she couldn't even speak the name of the place. She forced herself to meet her grandfather's eyes. "In the mountains around Hakone."

His cheerful face fell, took on a pained expression. It was a few seconds before he answered. "Rei, it's been years since we have spoken of that. Why do you suddenly bring it up now?"

"I'm not entirely sure. I've just been thinking about it lately, that's all."

"Have the nightmares come back?" he asked gently.

Rei shook her head. "No, there are just some things I've been wondering about. Some things I'd like to know."

The old priest slid closer to his granddaughter, looked up at her. "Rei-chan, you fought a long and hard battle to put all that behind you, and you won. Do you really want to dig it all up again now?"

"Grandpa... please." She couldn't think of any other way to ask.

He looked at her for a few seconds, then nodded. "What do you want to know?"

"The thing that attacked us... you always told me that the order Himiko was part of, those other temples, they had taken care of it. Do you know what happened?"

Her grandfather sighed. He suddenly seemed so much older. "Rei, the truth is, nothing happened. Nobody has any idea what that thing was. As far as we know, it has never been seen since. There was that one premonition of a great evil, and then nothing. We have no idea where it came from or what might have become of it."

"Grandpa, you keep saying 'it', we both saw that it was a woman."

"No!" he said vehemently, startling her. With effort, he calmed himself. "No, it was no woman. It was nothing human. It was a monster, something that revelled in slaughter. We can only hope that it was consumed in its own holocaust, or at least gone back from whence it came."

Rei felt a pang of guilt. She hadn't even thought of how much it would upset her grandfather, talking about these things. He had lost a dear friend to this creature as well. But there was one more thing she wanted to know. "Grandpa, why was the temple never rebuilt?"

"Nearly all of its occupants had been killed. The few that were left... well, they were mostly young, hadn't really gotten attached to it yet, preferred to put it behind them. One can hardly blame them."

Rei cast her eyes down, shook her head. "It was such a beautiful place. It's so sad to think of it just lying in ruins, all alone, nobody to care for it."

Her grandfather fidgeted uncomfortably. "Well, the truth is,  
the ruins aren't there anymore."

Rei's head snapped up. "What?"

"It was torn down a couple of years back."

Rei was shocked. "But why? Why would the order do that?"

"They didn't do it themselves, it was done by whoever bought the land."

Rei stared at him for several seconds. "They sold the land?"

Her voice had been utterly calm, but her grandfather knew full well what that hid. "Rei, I know how you feel about these things," he said as soothingly as he could. "I didn't like the idea at the time either. But you have to understand, there was really no hope of reestablishing the temple. And they were being offered such an amount of money... they really were better off using it to help expand the order elsewhere. Try to understand, they aren't in the business of preserving old buildings, they are pledged to be guardians against the darkness. That always has to come first."

They sat in silence for a while. Presently, the priest cleared his throat. "Rei, I never wanted to ask you this before, but did you ever consider contacting the order again, maybe working with them?"

Rei shook her head. "It's been in the back of my mind, but I don't think I'm ready to make that decision yet."

"Hmm. Quite right." He seemed a little disappointed, but obviously didn't want to press the matter.

"Grandpa, do you know who bought the land? What was done with it?"

"It was rather unusual, as I recall. Some high technology company needed a site at high elevation for some sort of research, and they wanted it in close proximity to their Tokyo operations. This site was apparently ideal. They were certainly willing to pay enough for it. Odd name, too. Rising Wind, I think."

Rei took a deep breath, and in her mind recited a mantra she would often use when she felt herself on the verge of panic. "I see. Thank you, grandpa. I think it's helped a little. I mean, talking about this."

He smiled and nodded. "Well, I hope you can set it behind you once and for all now."

"Yes, I think I can." She rose from the floor. "I feel the need to go meditate for a while, I'll clean up here later."

"Of course, go ahead."

Rei left the room, went down the hall, and entered a storage room where she was unlikely to be disturbed. She immediately fell to her knees, wrapped her arms around herself, and finally gave in to the shivering she had been suppressing in front of her grandfather. Her mantras were of little use against the primal fear of a childhood demon coming to haunt her.

*****

"Ready?" Minako asked.

"Ready!" Ami replied.

Minako pressed the play button on the boom box, and ran over to join Ami in the middle of Minako's small workout room. Minako's new aerobics outfit was rather more flamboyant than her own, Ami noted, it looked like its green, blue and pink would glow in the dark. The girls faced each other, raised their arms, and brought them forward until they touched each others' fingertips.  
Then the music began with hard beat.

Minako signalled the first move with a dip of her shoulder. Ami tensed, prepared to follow, and they began. She tried to watch all of Minako's body at the same time, looking for signals, trying to anticipate, striving to become Minako's shadow. It took all her concentration. Minako was right, she decided. This is more like combat than dancing.

At this beginner level, there were proscribed times in the sequence when the lead switched from one partner to the other. Ami waited for her cue, then began to lead them around the room.  
Leading was even harder, if she gave the wrong signal with her body language, Minako would make the wrong move and they would either break contact or crash into each other. And she was always supposed to strive for originality, to conceive new variations of the basic moves on the fly.

The lead went back to Minako, and she stepped up the pace. Ami was getting winded. But despite Minako's sudden zeal, she managed to persevere. When the music indicated that the end of the set was near, Minako had them in one corner of the room,  
then signalled a new pattern with a sudden upthrust of her head.  
*Oh no. Not that, we've never done it right yet.* They took two running steps, leapt high into the air, and landed in the opposite corner of the room that simply was *not* big enough for that sort of move. Their fingertips never parted. They worked their way back to the centre and resumed their starting position just on time for the music to end.

They linked fingers and pressed their palms together, both hyperventilating. Far too winded to talk, they just grinned triumphantly at each other. This was the first time they had completed an entire set without a single mistake. They staggered over to the bench, where Minako stopped the tape. Ami picked up her water bottle and took small swallows from it in between great gulps of air. Minako just ran the water from her own bottle over her face, letting it drip down her neck.

When she had enough of her breath back, Minako said, "Ami,  
after that, I think we have to get married."

Ami smiled. Minako had been saying the oddest things these days. A few days after she'd met this eccentric millionaire woman she'd suddenly been all fired up about this training she'd been doing with her "onesama," and begging Ami to try it with her. Ami would have thought Makoto would have more of an aptitude for this. "It's more like physical chess," Minako had replied, "much more your style." They'd been practicing for days now, Ami diligently but Minako fanatically. If not for Ami's firm refusal they probably would have been skipping classes and study to practice more.

"Minako, that was definitely the last set for me. I'm dead."

"Yeah, but it was worth it, wasn't it? Finishing off with a flourish like that, what a rush!"

"Uh-huh. The next time you see Gwen, please thank her for me. I've really enjoyed learning this dance of hers."

"I'll do that. You know, that woman is just unbelievable, she can go through an entire set like that and not even break a sweat."

"Well, maybe Europeans sweat in places you can't see," Ami said playfully.

Minako smiled. "Nope, there is no place I can't see. Her and I, we shadow dance in the nude."

Ami blinked. "Are you serious?"

"Yep. It's the greatest! In a big room you can go all over the place and really get a breeze moving over your body. Next time we'll have to try it that way."

Ami hummed a noncommittal monosyllable. "I should probably get ready to go, I have some homework to finish for tomorrow."

Minako waved at the door. "You know where the shower is."

"Thanks. See you in a bit." Ami picked up her duffel bag and walked down the hall. She went into the bathroom, stripped out of her blue aerobics suit and stepped into the shower room.

She had just turned on the shower when she heard the smoke-glass door to the anteroom slide open. She looked to see Minako enter wearing nothing but a towel over her hair. "Uh,  
did you want to go first?" Ami asked hesitantly.

"Ami, in case you hadn't noticed, there are two shower heads and plenty of room. We both stink and there's no reason for either of us to stay that way any longer than we need to. Besides, I can do your back this way."

"Okay." Ami said. She really didn't mind, this just seemed so unlike Minako, who normally wouldn't dream of imposing on a guest like this, even if it was a close friend. They finished showering, and went back to the anteroom where Ami changed into her street clothes and Minako put on a yukata and set to brushing her long hair. When Ami was ready, Minako followed her downstairs and walked her to the door. "My parents are going out tomorrow night too, so we can play the music as loud as we like." Minako said.

"Well, I think we ought to get together with the others and go back to our normal training for a while. We can't afford to neglect that, you know."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Thanks for coming over tonight Ami, I really had fun." As if it were the most normal thing in the world, as if they did it every day without thinking, Minako suddenly took Ami by the shoulders and kissed her tenderly.

Ami's heart skipped a beat. Her mind was abruptly cast back to several weeks ago. Just days after their defeat of the Death Busters, the two of them had been sitting on Ami's bed talking. Their physical injuries had healed, but they were still trying to deal with their brush with death, with Armageddon. Ami had started crying. Minako had taken Ami in her arms, kissed her just like this...

Ami stepped back, involuntarily bringing a hand up to her tingling lips. "Minako..." she breathed.

Minako, her hands still resting lightly on Ami's shoulders,  
smiled warmly. "Ami, I've been thinking lately, about the relationship that you and I almost began a few weeks ago. I'm sort of regretting we decided to end it there. I was wondering,  
do you think there's any chance we could, you know, pick up where we left off?"

Ami tried to calm herself. Her body was telling her what answer it wanted to her to give. It was a few seconds before she could clear her mind sufficiently to give the answer she knew she must. "Minako, we talked about this. We both agreed that there are just too many reasons that would be a bad idea. I still don't think either of us is ready for this."

Minako's smile faded slightly. "You know, Ami, you were wrong about one thing. I've gotten over what happened... what almost happened to us at the Mugen school, but I still feel the same way about you."

*And I feel the same way* Ami thought. "Minako, however we feel, those same good reasons will still be there."

Minako let her hands drop to her sides. "I'm tempted to ask you to at least think about it. But I guess that's the problem,  
isn't it? You're thinking too much about it."

Ami suppressed her sudden anger. This was so unfair of her,  
why couldn't she understand? "Minako, you know that starting something like this without thinking about the consequences is the worst thing we could do."

Minako regarded her for a few seconds, then averted her eyes,  
nodded. "I suppose you're right. I'm sorry Ami, I didn't mean to upset you. I'll never mention this again."

*Don't say never* Ami wanted to say. But that could be dangerous just now. "I should be going now," was all she could think to say. She stepped down to the doorway and shuffled into her shoes. Minako stood silently, watching her. Ami hated herself for not being able to find a kinder way to end this. She opened the door, stepped outside, and turned around. Minako was holding the door, watching her with a look of profound regret that tore at Ami's heart.

"Minako... are you sure you'll be okay?"

Minako's face suddenly brightened. "Don't worry Ami, I'll be fine." Her smile broadened into a devilish grin. "I'll just have to seduce you, that's all." She winked and blew Ami a kiss. "'Night." She shut the door.

"Good night," Ami said involuntarily, too late for Minako to hear it. She just stood there for several seconds, then suddenly had the silly notion that Minako might be watching her from one of the windows. She turned around and started walking down the street.

Ami was lost in thought as she made her way home. Minako had been so good about this, back then. They had agreed not to pursue the relationship, and nothing had been said about it since. What had suddenly brought this on? And she really didn't know what to make of that little performance at the door.  
She thought that she knew Minako well enough to be able to tell when she was serious and when she was kidding. But this time she just didn't know who was real, the heartbroken little girl or the grinning seductress.

*Which one do you want to be real?* an inner voice asked. Ami had no ready answer.

*****

It was a cloudy, starless night, so the woods were absolutely pitch black. Even with the light enhancers in his retinas cranked up to the max, Lafarge had to make his way carefully down the slope, often by feel. He had no intention of using ultrasound, radar or any other active sensors. Not this close to the Snake's nest.

He had long since adapted his internal navigation system to access the primitive satellite location system available on this world, had even cracked the code that let him use the one-meter precision available only to the military location devices. This and his inertial guidance implanted in his brain confirmed that he was still headed in the right direction. He dropped down and crawled the rest of the way to the clearing on his stomach. He had set his street clothes to morph into the silvery flexible body armour that was their true form. It produced tractioned and frictionless surfaces in the right places, allowing him to slide easily and silently up to the clearing.

As he poked his head through the last of the foliage, his eyes adjusted immediately to the much higher light level. A few meters in front of him was a high steel wire fence. Signs all along it warned that it was electrified, which was confirmed by the electromagnetic fields he was detecting. Beyond it was a slope gentler than the one he had climbed down, its smooth,  
shallow peaks and valleys covered by a well manicured lawn. The fence and the lawn went off to the left and the right, and then curved in to wrap around the complex proper.

On previous nights he had examined it through a high-power spotter scope from the balcony of the apartment he had rented across the valley. It was partially obscured from that vantage,  
but he had seen enough to know more or less what to expect. Still, he was surprised by the extent of it. On his left was a rambling, walled villa. The many rooftops thrusting up over the villa wall spoke of an elaborate house with multiple wings and courtyards. On his right, connected to the villa by both a paved road and a stone foot path, was the building housing the beacon. From the outside, it looked like a featureless black box, fifty meters on a side and almost as high. Floodlights all along the top of the villa wall and all along the side of the beacon enclosure lit up the Snake's rolling green moat. Looking in between the two complexes, on the far fence on the other side, Lafarge could glimpse the gate and gatehouse that provided the only access to the complex, and the power lines that arced to the villa and the beacon. He had to smile at the irony of the latter. If the Snake got its beacon going full throttle, it would generate enough power to light up much of Tokyo.

He marvelled at the extravagance of the Snake's nest. Obviously, it had accumulated wealth faster than it knew what to do with it. Physical resources had not been the main bottleneck, then. Collecting the right people to help it develop the technologies it needed must have been the hardest part. Whatever the case, the physical facilities appeared to be complete.

The increased activity here confirmed what he had gleaned from news items and tidbits pulled off the net. Ingolfsson had set up shop here. That had to mean they were close to activating the beacon.

Lafarge reviewed his options. Now that the Snake, its entourage and its beacon were all in one place, on the surface it looked like one fusion bomb would solve the problem. But it wasn't quite that simple. He wasn't supposed to be here in this timeline. If he did something that radical, it would cause a shift in the timeline that would stand out almost as conspicuously as the beacon the Snake wanted to use. He would be doing the Draka's work for them, inviting them to show up in hordes. No, it would require a more subtle approach.

Of course, subtle was a relative term. Vaporizing its rancid skull with a plasma bolt and burning its playhouse to the ground would do just fine. But that too would have to wait. There were other considerations. However careless this Snake had been about hiding its presence, it would almost certainly have taken other precautions, just as a matter of course. There would be dead man switches that would trip soon after the Snake's demise.  
They would set in motion its secondary plan, the Draka's natural response to anything that could not fall under their domination.

That which cannot be dominated must be destroyed.

No, Lafarge would have to find out as much as he could about the Snake's nest first. A premature attack could be just as dangerous as a late one. The timing would be tricky. If he failed once, there might not be a second chance.

So he certainly couldn't afford to be squeamish about dealing with whatever locals the Snake had pressed into its service.

*****

Ami woke in a state of overwhelming anxiety. Something was wrong. She was in her old familiar room, but something was wrong. She felt warm, relaxed and well-rested. But something was still wrong.

She turned her head to one side. The sight of her lover sleeping peacefully next to her brought her fully awake in an instant.

Slowly and carefully, Ami pulled aside the light cotton sheet that covered her, sat up and crossed her arms over her knees. She rested one side of her head on her arms, and for a few minutes contended herself with just watching the figure stretched out next to her. Minako was sleeping on her side,  
faced away from Ami, the sheet covering her up to the shoulder,  
her light hair spread out all over the pillow. Even in the dim early morning light filtering in through the blinds, Ami could see that her hair was a mess. Not surprising, Ami thought,  
considering what we were up to last night.

Presently she closed her eyes and rested her bowed forehead in her hands. She tried to fight through the guilt and anxiety, to think clearly. How did I let this happen? What was I thinking?

As objectively as she could, Ami reviewed the events of the previous evening. Minako had come over ostensibly to teach Ami some more advanced shadow dancing, but instead showed her two tickets to a new musical everyone had been raving about. Since they would have to leave immediately to get there on time, Ami could hardly stop to wonder about the change in plan. It had been a wonderful show, a magical, romantic fantasy full of charming songs and glittering spectacle. Walking home in the fading twilight, singing show tunes, they had found themselves walking along the fence of Juban park. Minako had suddenly stopped and showed Ami a section of the fence that could be swung aside, letting them in. Ignoring Ami's protests that the park was closed for the night, Minako dragged her to the lake. They took a rowboat, and spent an hour or so wandering across the lake under the moonlight. Ami's anxiety over breaking into the park had gradually been replaced by the thrill of treading forbidden ground. Back at Ami's house, she had invited Minako in for tea. It being so late, Ami had suggested she stay the night. In her room, Minako had complained of sore muscles from doing all the rowing. Feeling a bit guilty, Ami offered to give her a massage. Naturally, Minako had to return the favour. Somehow or other, that had led to something more intimate.

In the cold light of day, with no raging hormones to cloud her judgement, Ami could clearly see what had happened. Ami had been very carefully and very skilfully manipulated into wanting things to turn out this way. Put simply, she had been seduced.

But it still made no sense. When had Minako become so manipulative? Her calculated pursuit of Ami seemed almost predatory. And there was something else. She thought back to their first night together, after their defeat of the Death Busters. However tender, it had been halting and clumsy. They had been two frightened young girls, hardly knowing what they were doing. But last night, Minako had been so... well,  
creative. Ami shivered as her body responded to the memory. She suppressed the reaction, still trying to figure out what she was missing here.

The last piece of the puzzle slid into place like a deadbolt. Gwendolyn Ingolfsson.

Shocked by this flash of insight, Ami once again turned to look at Minako, who was still sleeping contentedly. It would explain a great deal, but... could that woman really be sleeping with a fifteen year old girl? Ami only had a vague picture of her from what Minako had told her. A rich, eccentric, aggressive business woman who worked like the devil but indulged in decadent excesses.

She shook her head, ran a hand through her tangled hair. This was all getting to be too much, her head was spinning. No sense trying to think any further on it now. She was becoming more acutely aware of just how badly she needed a shower and something to eat. Very quietly, she eased herself off the bed,  
went to pick up a bathrobe, and tiptoed out of the room.

She looked at the clock on the hall thermostat. Her mother would be back in town in a few hours. She would most definitely have to wake up Minako and get those bedsheets washed before then.

*****

Makoto sat in the Hikawa Shrine residence, enjoying the warm afternoon breeze that blew through the open panels. She saw Usagi come up the stone steps onto the temple grounds, and waved at her. Usagi waved back, came trotting down the stone path. "Hi Mako-chan," she said, taking her shoes off at the door. "You all alone?"

Makoto smiled. "Not any more."

"Hey, don't get technical on me." She came in, sat down, and flopped down spreadeagled on the bamboo mats, panting. "Hah! I made it! Why is it whenever I manage to make it here early,  
everybody else is late?"

"I think you just answered your own question. Early and late are relative."

"Oh no, you're starting to sound like Ami." Usagi pulled herself over to the table, rested her chin on her hands. "Anyway, why isn't Rei here?"

"Said she had to finish up some work in the main building,  
she'll be here shortly."

"Oh, you mean you *saw* her? Has she grown at all since we last met?"

Makoto smiled. "No, but she did look a little less spooked."

Usagi's expression sobered. "Seriously, did she look okay? I really haven't seen much of her since she had her fainting spell."

"None of us have. But yeah, she looks okay. She's got that calm look she gets after doing a lot of meditating. I think she's dealt with whatever was bothering her."

Usagi smiled. "I'm glad. I was getting worried about her. When she called to invite me here, she sounded a little spaced out."

"Well, I was just happy to hear we'd all be getting together. It's been a while."

"Tell me about it!" Usagi said, looking up as if seeking strength from Heaven. "It was bad enough when Minako started spending all her time with that German woman, now she's got Ami doing that dance thing." She sighed, her face developing an exaggerated wistful look. "It's like they're too busy for us,  
we can't even get them all together for just a soda after school anymore." She took Makoto's hand, smiled at her. "You're not going to abandon me too, are you Mako-chan?"

"Don't be silly," Makoto said, patting her hand. "Nobody's abandoned you." But Makoto had also been wondering about how their three friends seemed to be off in their own worlds lately.  
They were like family to Makoto, to even think that they might be drifting apart was...

"Hi, sorry I'm late," They heard Rei call as she approached the house. She doffed her sandals and came into the room through the open panel. "Hi Usagi. Mako-chan, why didn't you help yourself to tea?" she asked.

"Well, that's your specialty, if it's made by you then it's worth the wait."

Rei smiled warmly. "Okay, coming right up." She walked over to the side of the room that had the kettle and tea set, and busied herself with it. When she brought it to the table, there was also a magazine on the tray. She put it on the table next to Usagi. "I picked that up yesterday, I thought you'd like to look at it."

"Hey, I didn't even know this was out!" Usagi said, grabbing the issue of Nakayoshi and flipping through it. "They must be ending this chapter of Rayearth. I've been dying to find out how that turned out. Don't you dare tell me!"

"Actually I haven't read it yet," Rei said. "You can take that home if you like."

There was dead silence in the room for several seconds as Usagi and Makoto stared at Rei. Usagi slid over towards her raven-haired friend and without a word put a hand over the girl's forehead. Makoto watched the two of them stare at each other, Rei with a look of mild amusement, Usagi with growing worry. Hesitantly, Usagi said, "Rei, you're not still feeling... um, weird or anything, are you?"

"It's nice of you to ask, but I'm feeling fine now."

"Oh. Good." Usagi withdrew her hand and went back to her original place. "Actually, I think I'll read this later, but tea sounds like a great idea."

Rei poured her a cup. "Did you and Mamoru manage to get out to that Millennial Project theme park last week?"

"Yeah, it was great!" Usagi was about halfway through her minute by minute account of their date when Ami showed up at the door.

She smiled shyly. "Hi everyone. Minako sends her regrets, she couldn't make it."

"Aw jeez, I knew somebody would bum out!" Usagi said.

Ami went to join them at the table. "Well, she's been getting behind in her schoolwork, she really had to do some studying today."

"That's too bad," Makoto said. "It seem's you're about the only one who's seen much of her lately." She was puzzled at how Ami suddenly seemed uncomfortable, unable to look anyone in the eye. A flush came to her cheeks.

"Yeah, did she join a convent or something?" Usagi asked.

"Oh no, hardly that," Ami answered. Makoto thought she detected a hint of irony there.

"Well, I was hoping all of us could be here, but I guess it can't be helped," Rei said.

There was something other than mild disappointment in Rei's tone. "Did you have something in mind for today?" Makoto asked.

Rei looked at her and seemed to force a smile. "Actually,  
there was something I wanted to talk to all of you about."

I knew it, something's up, Makoto thought. Usagi and Ami also seemed to have picked up on Rei's tone, they were looking at her with puzzled expressions.

Rei took a moment to compose herself, then began. Eyes downcast, glancing only occasionally at her friends, she told the story. In as straightforward a fashion as she could manage,  
she told of the ritual she had participated in seven years ago in the remote mountain temple in Hakone, and of its disastrous outcome. She then told of the aftermath of that night, the years of nightmares, the professional and spiritual help that she had to obtain.

When she was done, they all just sat in silence for over a minute. Finally, Makoto looked back up at the shrine maiden sitting quietly beside her. The stricken look that had come over her face as she told her tale had faded now. Hoping that her timing wasn't wrong, but desperate to know more, Makoto asked, "Rei, this has something to do with your fainting spell,  
doesn't it?"

Rei nodded, then met Makoto's gaze. "That last scene in The Final War... it was just so much like what happened on that night seven years ago."

"Oh no!" Usagi wailed, bringing her hand up to her mouth in alarm. "Oh Rei, I'm so sorry! You didn't even want to go to that, and Minako and I, we..."

But Rei was shaking her head. She smiled reassuringly at Usagi. "No, Usagi, it wasn't your fault, it wasn't just the movie. You see, a few days ago, I found out that the ruins of the temple where... where it happened, have been torn down now. Rising Wind, the company that made that 3D system, they've put up some big complex there. Nobody seems to know much about it,  
other than that it's some sort of research facility."

Makoto exchanged glances with Ami and Usagi. They looked just as confused as she was. "Rei, I don't understand," Ami said. "Are you saying there's some connection?"

Rei hesitated, then seemed to find her resolve. "The creature that destroyed the temple, it... she looked exactly like Gwendolyn Ingolfsson."

Silence descended on the group again. With an effort, Makoto avoided looking at Usagi and Ami. She could guess that they were thinking the same thing she was, and she didn't want that to show. Not in front of Rei. Choosing her words very carefully, she said, "Rei, don't you think that might just be a coincidence? I mean, that was a long time ago, you were scared,  
and you probably couldn't see properly. Seeing a face that was kind of similar, it might have just triggered the memory."

It looked like Rei had been expecting that reaction. "I know,  
Makoto, I was thinking the same thing myself. But I've never had that sort of reaction to any face I've seen, not just that it reminded me of that night, but that... well, that I was looking at something inhuman. And when I heard that this same person had torn down the temple, I had such a feeling of dread."

"Rei, couldn't you do a reading, try to find out for sure?"  
Usagi asked.

Rei looked stricken again. "I've been doing little else these past few days."

"Did you find anything?" Ami asked. She suddenly sounded very anxious.

Rei looked down, shook her head. "No, nothing. I've tried to approach this like any other potential threat, but I might have a blind spot for anything to do with what happened to me back then. I may not be of any use... I mean, in finding out whether Ingolfsson really is that creature." There seemed to be an unspoken plea hidden in her last statement. *Please help me.*

Makoto met Usagi's eyes, and they both nodded in understanding.  
It didn't matter what they thought of Rei's concerns. Their friend was in distress, she needed their help. "Okay, so we've got to find out more about Ingolfsson," Usagi said, suddenly all business. "Rei, I know it's sort of personal, but would it be okay if I told Luna about what happened to you? I want to ask her advice, she may see something we missed."

"Yes, of course," Rei said, sounding almost bewildered at Usagi's sudden zeal.

"Okay. I'll talk to Mamo-chan too. He was telling me about some economics course or whatever he had to do research on, he may know where to find out more about this Rising Wind company. Especially what they're doing in Hakone. If he can't find out,  
maybe we can hack into their computers or something. Ami, I feel bad asking you to do something like that, but do you think it would be possible?"

They all looked at Ami. For a second it looked like she hadn't really been paying attention. But she recovered quickly. "Of course, Usagi. Um, just ask Mamoru to call me if he needs help."

Usagi smiled. "Thanks, Ami. Could you also fill in Minako on what's happening?"

"Why me?" Ami asked. She sounded almost defensive, Makoto thought.

"Gosh girl, because you're the only one who *sees* her these days!" Usagi said, exasperated.

"Ami, you might want to ask Minako to watch what she says around her onesama, at least until we find out more," Makoto suggested.

"Is Minako still seeing that woman?" Rei asked, sounding very alarmed.

"Oh yeah, they usually manage to meet whenever she's in town on business. And Minako goes up to her villa every weekend."

"Villa?" Rei asked.

"Sure, didn't you know? She's got a villa somewhere in Hakone..." her voice trailed off as she made the connection. She whipped her head around to face Ami, sending her pigtails flying around her. "Ami, is that the same place?"

"It must be, Minako told me about some big research building right beside the villa."

"You mean she's *been* there?" Rei asked. "We've got to warn her!"

"Hold on a second," Makoto said, trying to head off the rising panic she could hear in everyone's voices. "We still don't know if there's anything to warn her about. I mean, they've been friends for weeks, right? Nothing bad has happened." She tried to gauge her friends' reactions. Rei still looked worried. Ami was on the verge of saying something, then seemed to decide against it.

"You're right," Usagi said. "Rei, I think we should just tell her about what happened there, and that we think something may be going on in that building. That way she can at least be on her guard. It sounds like Minako really likes Gwendolyn, I.  
well, I don't want to accuse her of anything until we know more."

Rei didn't seem to like this, but after a moment she nodded reluctantly. "Okay, I guess that makes sense. But as soon as Mamoru and Ami find out what they can, I think we should all meet here."

"Okay. Well!" Usagi's face suddenly brightened and she sat up straight, looking like she was ready to leave. "It sounds like I've got an excuse to go visit Mamo-chan! No time like the present!"

"Usagi teleport, activate!" Makoto chimed, grateful to her friend for relieving the tension.

"Maybe I should go too," Ami said. "I hate to interrupt Minako's studying, but I'd like to fill her in on what's going on." She seemed to be even more anxious to get going than Usagi.

"Sure, you two go ahead," Rei told them. She walked them to the door. When they were on their way down the path to the stairway, she rejoined Makoto in her room. "I'm going to feel really dumb if I've sent everyone out on a wild goose chase,"  
she said.

Makoto didn't return her smile. "Rei, do you really think Gwendolyn is the woman who killed your friend seven years ago?"

Rei seemed shocked by the blunt question. It took her a few seconds to find her answer. "Makoto... for all our sakes, I hope that I'm wrong."

*****

In a room that would have been pitch dark to any eyes but her own, Gwen sat cross-legged on her immense round bed, seemingly a nude statue staring into empty space. The transducer embedded in her brain fed her data from the latest system integration trials, converting it to graphical form.

On the surface, everything seemed to be working as planned. She kept telling herself that all the numbers were right. All the readings were well within acceptable tolerances.

But.

There were subtle anomalies in the power output, barely detectable, but utterly inexplicable. Van Kreveld was treating it as just a curiosity. But then again, he didn't really care whether the beacon worked or not. As long as he could delve deeper into the mysteries of the universe, he was happy. There was little Gwen could do but hope it would not affect the functioning of the beacon.

With a thought, Gwen made the graphs dissolve from her sight. For the first time in over an hour, she moved something other than her eyelids. She turned her head to contemplate an enigma of a different sort.

Minako looks lovely even in infrared, she thought. Her body stretched out on the bed formed a smooth silhouette. In Gwen's visual cortex, its warmth became subtle monochrome shadings. A far cry from the way she had looked to Gwen just as she had fallen asleep, all her passion spent. The slowly fading afterglow had made her body shine like a white-hot ember.

Of all the feral humans Gwen had encountered on this planet,  
this was the one she felt closest to. Yet this was the one that she understood the least. To her onesama, Minako was as responsive and devoted as even a Homo Servus could be. Yet under Gwen's influence, her personality seemed to be changing in quite a different way. The chemistry between them - both literal and figurative - was having its effect. She was developing an aggressiveness and assertiveness that would be worthy of a Draka. It was showing up in fairly subtle ways. The way she had worked so hard to get that bookworm friend of hers into bed, for instance. She had told Gwen all about their night on the town, making it sound like it was the most normal thing in the world. But Gwen could easily read between the words, could see the way Minako had planned it all out with the precision of a bombing sortie. It seemed that she really was utterly oblivious to the changes in her own behaviour.

Gwen smiled. Poor little Ami probably didn't even know what hit her.

And there was something else. Subtle hints of a deep,  
well-guarded secret. Something that even Gwen with her Drakon bag of tricks could not penetrate, could not even guess at. Whatever it was, that secret was the source of her inner strength, her vitality. It was almost like the easy confidence of war veterans who had been forged in grim battles they dare not speak of. Somewhere, somehow, Minako had become a warrior.

Once again, Gwen felt tempted to bring Minako into her inner circle. But the mystery, the unknown factors surrounding the girl held her back. It probably didn't matter much, she decided. Soon, the beacon would call her brothers and sisters to this world, and together they would pacify it. Gwen would be recognized as the founder of this new colony, the one who had laid the groundwork for its conquest. There was a good chance of her being declared Planetary Archon. With that sort of authority, she could contemplate doing something that hadn't been done in the Final Society for centuries. Have the geneticists turn a feral human into a Drakon. Let Minako take her place among them.

But in the meantime, Gwen thought of how nice it would be to have Minako here at the villa on a permanent basis. Maybe there was something she could...

Her transducer warned her of another probe of her outer computer network.

Gwen snapped her head forward, resuming her former position. The probe had already withdrawn. It had lasted milliseconds. Her transducer displayed the relevant data. With a subvocalized command, Gwen integrated it into the log of past probes, and examined what she had so far.

The probes had started in earnest a few days ago. None of them were traceable to a source. They had come through a variety of channels, used a variety of techniques. They could be rival companies, intelligence agencies, hackers, anything. But when she went beyond the numbers, analyzed the style of attack more deeply, a definite pattern emerged. She could identify two distinct probers.

The first was getting through by the simple expedient of having the correct passwords. This did *not* point to a traitor in her midst: anyone who knew those passwords would also know of the other precautions taken to protect the outer network. No,  
somebody must be pulling the encrypted versions of the passwords from network packets and cracking them. That had interesting implications, since the encryption they used would take all the computers on this planet centuries to crack. The really baffling thing about this first set of probes was how amateurish they were: they had been stopped cold by fairly simple firewalls. Gwen had an image of a clever but inexperienced hacker with access to computing power that was not likely to be available on this planet for decades. Very curious.

The second prober was a different animal altogether. Careful,  
subtle, cunning, experienced. This one also had access to unlimited processing power, but knew how to use it. Probably the only reason it hadn't been able to penetrate further was that this prober seemed paranoid about being detected. In fact,  
normally it would not have been detected. There was no similarity in any of its probes, no pattern, nothing to link them together.

Nothing, that is, except the smell. Gwen's sense of smell was four hundred years old, and this was beginning to smell more and more like a Samothracian.

Gwen's lips curled back, and a low growl came up from the back of her throat as she bristled at the thought of her people's ancestral enemy invading her new territory. So, her activity had finally attracted their attention away from America, where no doubt they had been engaged in a fruitless search for her. It had been amusing her to think of Yankee agents roaming over an alternate version of their own country, trying to flush her out while she carried on her merry way here on the other side of the planet.

Assuming she was right about this, they were likely in the early stages of probing her defenses. Their real target had been her inner network, the one linked directly to her transducer, the one that controlled her dead man switches, her doomsday bio-bombs. They had little hope of penetrating it, but they would dearly want to at least confirm its location. So that they could target it when they attacked.

She would move around a bit more in the next few days, send out false signals hinting where her centre of operations was, buy some time. Enough time to activate the beacon and end the game.

*****

Without warning the door slid open with a bang, startling Makoto and everyone else in the room. They all turned to see Minako walking in, waving at them. "Hi everyone!" she said,  
already walking to the empty spot at the table. "How are we this fine day?"

"We are all busy twiddling our thumbs waiting for you," Rei said, clearly irritated. "You're half an hour late."

"Got a little sidetracked," Minako said, still smiling. The shopping bag she was carrying hit the floor with a thud, and she plopped herself down on the unoccupied cushion near the end of the table, next to Chibi-usa. She playfully pulled on the young girl's nearest pigtail, eliciting a yelp of surprise. "Hey squirt, long time no see. What you been up to?"

"Just sitting here waiting," she said, sounding like she didn't like the treatment she was getting one bit.

"What, Rei didn't give you any of her manga to read? Well,  
I'll fix that," she reached into the shopping bag behind her,  
pulled out a small paper bag and dropped it down between them. "I passed by the shop today, help yourself."

Artemis, who had entered behind Minako, jumped up onto the table beside her. "Hi everyone," he said, looking very sheepish. He had been tasked with making sure Minako got here on time today. "I'm afraid we took a slight detour."

"What, to buy some manga?" Luna asked. She was sitting on the opposite side of the table, near Usagi and Mamoru. "You do realize we came here to discuss sailor senshi business, don't you?"

"Sure he does," Minako said, patting Artemis roughly on the head. "That's why he followed me all around the shop meowing at me. It was full of people so he couldn't talk. I couldn't figure out what his problem was until I looked at my watch. It was hilarious!"

"Minako, that's not funny," Ami said, sounding angry. "You should think of Artemis' feelings. It's really frustrating for him, not being able to talk in front of others."

Artemis laughed nervously. "That's okay, Ami. I probably should have just scratched her. Ouch!" he pulled back the paw Minako had just pinched.

"Like to see you try, furball," Minako said, grinning dangerously.

Artemis looked back at her. He didn't say anything. Makoto studied him, frowning. She could swear she saw genuine fear in his manner.

"Well, now that we're all here, maybe we can get started," Luna said.

"Couldn't we at least have some tea first?" Minako said.

"Minako, we finished the tea before you got here!" Usagi said indignantly. "That's what you get for being late."

"Oh, and you're one to talk," Minako said sarcastically.

"I think there is some left," Rei said, rising to her feet. "I'll get you a cup."

"Gee, maybe she'd like you to make a fresh pot," Usagi said in a huff.

"Usako..." Mamoru said gently, putting a hand on Usagi's shoulder. That seemed to calm her a bit. She contended herself with glaring at Minako, who just crossed her arms and returned Usagi's gaze with a smug look. Usagi shifted her gaze slightly,  
then frowned. She leaned forward, looking intently toward her future daughter. "Chibi-usa, what are you reading there?"

"A really weird Sailor V manga," she replied, not looking up from the book she had open.

Ami, who was seated on Chibi-usa's other side, leaned over to have a look. Her jaw suddenly dropped down. "Uh... Chibi-usa,  
we're about to start, maybe you should put that away."

Usagi had caught the look on Ami's face. She leaned out over the table and held out her hand. "Chibi-usa, could I see that please?" Chibi-usa looked a little annoyed, but handed the book over without complaint.

Usagi started flipping through it, then stopped at one page. Impossibly, her jaw dropped down even further than Ami's had. Makoto leaned over the spot Rei had vacated to get a look. She glimpsed a picture of Sailor V writhing in the clutches of a grotesque, inhuman monster. It had torn off most of her sailor senshi suit and was busy probing every orifice of her body it could get its tentacles into.

Usagi dropped the book down on the table, her flushed face twisted with shock and outrage. "Minako, this is utterly vile! How dare you give something like this to my daughter! Are you out of your mind?"

Minako just shrugged. "Hey, she's got to learn about this stuff sometime."

"Is that all you have to say for yourself?" Luna asked. She looked almost as angry as Usagi.

"Oh chill out already," Minako said, sounding bored. "If it bothers you that much, give it back and I'll put it away."

"Minako, get up."

Standing behind Minako, Rei had gotten everyone's attention without even raising her voice. Minako turned around to look up at her. Makoto couldn't see her face any more, but the way she sat frozen showed that Rei had her full attention. Slowly,  
Minako got to her feet and faced her. When Rei spoke again, she still didn't raise her voice. She didn't need to. "Minako, I don't know why you've suddenly developed this attitude problem,  
but I'm not putting up with it any more. And I'm not going to stand by and let you humiliate my guests either. If you can't behave yourself then I don't want you in my house any longer. Either smarten up or get out."

Makoto held her breath. All she could hear was her own heart labouring under the unbearable tension. Nothing moved.

Minako bowed her head. "I understand. I'm sorry." The voice was expressionless and low, barely audible.

Rei nodded, and went to resume her place. Nobody else spoke as she and Minako sat down. Makoto was shocked by what she saw in Minako's face. It was not the shame and humility of a friend who had been made to apologize. It was the suppressed rage of a wolf that had been made to bare its throat to one of the pack.

"Luna, I apologize for the delay," Rei said formally. "Perhaps we can begin."

"Very well," Luna said. By unspoken agreement she seemed to be standing in for Usagi, who still looked far too upset to speak,  
let alone conduct a meeting. "Mamoru, why don't you tell us what you've found out about Rising Wind?"

Mamoru nodded. "Well, there's no shortage of information on it, that's for sure. Every economic pundit in Tokyo seems to have written about them. They've had an incredible string of successes, all of them surrounding some new piece of technology.  
Ingolfsson seems to have a talent for attracting brilliant people, she's got some of the world's top minds in a whole host of fields working for her. On top of that, she seems to have a nose for a good technology venture that is flawless. Every single Rising Wind project has been a spectacular success.

"Supposedly she started off the company after she inherited her family fortune seven years ago. That's a bit of a mystery,  
though. As far as anyone can see, she has no living relatives. Also, it's like she has no past. I've read a dozen profiles on her, and I've never seen any mention of what she did before founding Rising Wind.

"As for what they're doing in their Hakone facility, that seems to be their biggest secret. There's just lots of speculation. Cold fusion, hot fusion, nuclear rockets. Nobody seems to know for sure. Sorry, that's about all I could find."

Luna nodded. "Ami, anything to add?"

"Not much, I'm afraid," Ami said, looking around the room. "I did all sorts of scans on the network for her name, and like Mamoru said it's like she dropped on to the earth seven years ago. I even read profiles of her that I hacked from a couple of intelligence agencies. They've been curious about her background, but even they couldn't find anything. And as to the Hakone facility, I was able to get into its network but it's got security like I've never seen before. About all I got was a general rundown of the departments they've got there. It's definitely high-energy physics of some sort. And it's a *lot*  
bigger than most people seem to think. Rising Wind must be sinking at least half their assets into it. Maybe more."

"Rei, it looks like you were right after all," Usagi suddenly said. All her anger seemed to have melted away now. She was looking at Rei with an expression of sympathy, as if apologizing for having doubted her. "Ingolfsson must be the one at the temple, just like you said. But what could she be doing?"

"Maybe she's just trying to get home," Makoto suggested,  
wishing she could believe it. "I mean, open up a gate like the one that brought her here, the way the Dark Kingdom used to do."

"Hold it."

Everyone looked over at Minako. Since her confrontation with Rei everyone had been involuntarily avoiding her gaze, trying to ignore her sullen silence. It was almost a shock to hear her voice again.

Minako looked around the room with an expression of growing outrage. "I don't believe this. You just admitted you know nothing about her and now you're saying she's some sort of monster? Are you serious?"

"Well, how would you explain it?" Makoto asked, showing more anger than she had intended.

"Explain what? That you can't find anything on what dammed schools she attended? You should have asked me, I could have told you. She had private tutoring because her family was always moving, regular schools would have been no good to her. She comes from an old family who value their privacy and don't publish their affairs in society magazines, that's why nobody can find anything about them."

"She told you that?" Usagi asked.

"Yes, she told me that," Minako answered in a mocking impersonation of Usagi's voice. "And in case you're wondering,  
she also told me about that research they're doing. Not that it's any of your business, but I just want to show you how stupid you're being. It's a new kind of nuclear reactor, that's all."

"Well, why did she have to build it on very spot where the temple burned down?" Rei asked.

Minako threw her hands up in frustration. "How the hell should I know? Rei, don't you get it? The temple has nothing to do with it. Maybe the reactor works better in low air pressure or something, I'll be sure to ask Gwen the next time I see her."

"Minako, you shouldn't mention any of this to her, or to anyone in her household," Mamoru said firmly.

"What, you think she's going to eat me? Fine, I wouldn't want to mention any of this to her anyway, she'd think I'm hanging around with a bunch of idiots."

"Minako, that's enough..." Rei warned her.

"Yeah, I guess that is about enough, isn't it?" Minako got up,  
picked up her shopping bag and without another word headed for the door.

"Minako, where do you think you're going?" Rei asked.

Minako stopped to glare at her. "Home. I'm not going to waste my time listening to your paranoid fantasies."

Makoto watched Rei's reaction. Her face betrayed no emotion. But her clenched fists and irregular breathing indicated what she was holding back. After a moment, she nodded. "Fine. Go then. I'm sorry to have been a burden to you."

Minako's expression seemed to soften just a little. She went to slide open the door, hesitated again, and looked back. "Rei,  
I was really sorry to hear about how your sensei got killed. I know it must have been awful for you. But that's no excuse for going off half-cocked and accusing my friend of murdering her. I don't think I can forgive you for that. Good bye." She walked out into the hall, not bothering to close the door behind her.

Rei closed her eyes, rested her forehead on her steepled fingers. She looked drained, infinitely tired.

Makoto put a hand on Rei's shoulder. "Rei, she's just angry. She didn't mean it."

"Oh Gods, what if she's right?" Rei said in a small, despairing voice. "Maybe I'm just going crazy, chasing childhood nightmares."

"No, I don't think so," Makoto said. "If anyone's going off the deep end it's Minako. Artemis, do you know what's gotten into her lately?" She was wondering why Artemis had made no move to follow Minako home. He looked very shaken.

"I wish I knew," Artemis said. "I've tried to talk with her but it's like she's a different person now, she won't listen to anyone."

"I can guess what the source of the problem is," Mamoru said. "She really seems to have become infatuated with Ingolfsson."

"Boy, you got that right!" Makoto said. "You know, at this point I don't even care whether she's a demon or an alien or just some eccentric genius. She's having a really bad influence on Minako and the girl can't even see what's happening. Somebody is going to have to talk to her and set her straight."

"I'll do it."

They all looked at Ami, who hadn't spoken a word since delivering her report. She looked very troubled, but there was firm resolve in her voice. "I'll talk to her. But I think we need to give her at least a couple of days. She's too angry right now."

"That makes good sense," Luna said. "But we seem to be no further in solving the puzzle that Rei has given us. I'm at a loss as to what we can do next."

"Well, if we can just get Minako out of that woman's clutches,  
I'll be happy," Makoto said. "Then we can start worrying about what she's up to in her batcave."

Nobody had any further ideas to offer, so by mutual consent the meeting dissolved. People were soon headed home. Makoto stayed behind to help Rei clean up. When Rei went out to put the tea things away, Makoto went to sit down at the table by Artemis,  
the only other guest who hadn't left yet. "You going home soon?" she asked.

"Yeah, I guess." He looked closer at her. "Something on your mind, Makoto?"

She hesitated. "Artemis, I don't know how to put this but.  
well, not to put too fine a point on it, more than once today you looked really scared, like you were really expecting Minako to hit you or something."

Artemis cocked his head. "Your point being...?"

"Well, if you'd prefer to crash at my place for a while, that would be okay."

Artemis seemed to consider her words carefully. "Thanks for the offer, but I don't think that would be a good idea. Minako is already feeling as if we've betrayed her, that would just make it worse. I think you know that."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Makoto said.

"There's something else, isn't there?" Artemis asked.

Makoto sighed. Minako had always talked about how she couldn't hide anything from Artemis. She could see why. "I just thought maybe we could talk. Try to figure out what's going on in her head, how to get through to her."

"Mako-chan... you're crying."

She was suddenly aware of the tear that had made its way down her cheek. She self-consciously wiped it away. They sat in silence for a few moments while Makoto tried to find the words. "She's like family to me Artemis. I couldn't love her more if she were my own sister. I don't understand what's happening to her, but I just can't shake the feeling that she's being taken away from us. Sure, I've almost lost her before, almost lost all of them. But that was in battle, where I can always be there to help them. This time I just feel so helpless, so useless. I've lost one family already, and..." her voice broke.

"I understand," Artemis said soothingly. "Until we can figure out what's going on with her, I'll watch over her. I always will."

Makoto sniffed, tried to smile. "Let me walk you home, okay? It's getting dark and I don't want any alley cats picking fights with you."

"Sure."

Part Two

Racing her red Ferrari through the twisting streets of Juban,  
Gwen was really beginning to see the appeal of a well-tuned internal combustion engine. It was remarkable the way that a trifling four hundred horsepower pushing her along the ground at a few tens of meters per second could make her feel like a primary force of nature, an unstoppable hurricane.

Many of the streets here were too narrow to have a sidewalk proper, there was often just a white line reserving a narrow strip of the road for pedestrians. The jaded inhabitants were well used to sharing the road with speeding vehicles that swerved around them. But even most of them were taken aback by the passage of a car whose driver could direct her vehicle to a tolerance of centimetres and had a reaction time measured in milliseconds. Gwen's progress through the town seemed to be a continuous stream of narrowly averted disasters. In fact even with the small amount of concentration she was devoting to her driving, they were quite safe from the Drakon who had no intention of denting her new toy on anything so unworthy as a feral human.

Minako seemed to be only mildly shaken by Gwen's apparent recklessness. She had the door's handhold in a white-knuckled grip, but her scent had more thrill than fear in it. Minako's trust in her onesama was absolute.

"So Minako, have you given any further thought to what we discussed yesterday?" Gwen asked.

Minako hesitated. "Not too much, actually. I wasn't sure how serious you were."

"Well of course I was serious, girl!" Gwen said, giving Minako's leg a squeeze that would be at least slightly painful,  
then shooting her hand straight back into a downshift with the speed of a striking viper. "I think it would be a splendid idea. I see a lot of potential in you. I think you could master the Ingolfsson family martial arts in a matter of years and then start teaching it, start up a whole new school here in Japan."

"You really think so?" Unsure, but Gwen could hear the eagerness. She was breaking down.

"Of course. I've already had my people work out how the schooling would work, too. It could all be done by tutoring and computer based learning. Rising Wind has really advanced that field, you know, you can beta test our latest multimedia workstations."

"It's... so sudden." Insecurity, feeling unworthy.

"That's what all of my best people said when I offered to bring them into Rising Wind. That's the secret of my success, girl, I scope out people with potential and give them the opportunity of a lifetime." Put her in the same league as the adults, bolster her confidence.

"I'd have to talk to my parents." She was afraid they would say no. Good.

"Why don't I ask them for you at dinner tonight?" Her father had sent her an invitation to join his family for dinner at one of the top Roppongi restaurants, in return for the time Gwen had been devoting to Minako's training. Ignoring poor Yohko's fretting over Gwen's busy schedule she had accepted, seeing how she could leverage this to bring Minako into the fold.

"Onesama, I... I don't know what to say. Thank you."

"Fine, it's settled then. And don't worry, I'm sure they'll be thrilled at the idea. By the way, I seem to have made up some time here, since we're in the neighbourhood why don't we visit your friend at her shrine? I'd like to see it."

"Uh... sure, I guess so." Gwen was astonished at the hostility that had crept into Minako's voice, even a human could probably have detected it. A little falling out with her friend? It looked as if the changes in Minako's personality was generating some friction among her friends. Gwen guessed that Rei held the alpha position in the little group. Perhaps Minako was unconsciously challenging her for that position. This could be interesting.

In minutes, Gwen brought the car to a screeching halt exactly one centimetre from the curb near the bottom of the stone stairway that led up to Hikawa Shrine. Minako took her arm and they walked up the stairway. When they came to the top, they could see a raven-haired girl in shrine maiden robes several meters down the path, facing away from them, sweeping the walk. Further down the path was the main temple building that dominated the grounds. Gwen's heartbeat picked up incrementally. In her mind, Shinto shrines still had a rather unfortunate association with her entry into this world.

"Rei-chaaan!" Minako called out. The girl turned around, and Minako waved enthusiastically, her earlier hostility apparently forgotten. Gwen could see a warm smile forming on the shrine maiden's lovely face, as if pleasantly surprised at hearing her friend's familiar voice. Her eyes locked on them, and instantly she froze. Gwen would swear she could hear the girl's heart leap even at this distance. Mortal dread was etched on her face. For a moment Gwen was wondering just what Minako had been doing to Rei to elicit this response. But it became clear that only Gwen occupied Rei's attention. As she and Minako approached, Rei put on a carefully constructed poker face that would probably fool Minako, but certainly could not fool Gwen. The girl was terrified. Gwen had seen some humans react something like this at first sight of her, perhaps responding to some deep instinct warning them they were in the presence of a predator whose natural prey was humans. But never anything this intense.

Minako was blissfully unaware of her friend's distress as they stopped in front of her. "Rei, I'd like you to meet Gwendolyn Ingolfsson."

With no more expression than an elevator doll, Rei bowed to Gwen. "I'm pleased to meet you, Ingolfsson-san."

"Hello Rei, I'm happy to meet you," Gwen returned. She inhaled to speak again, and got an even greater surprise than Rei's intense fear reaction had been. Her scent was utterly different from Minako's, yet it too had a hint of the pleasant, orderly quality Gwen thought could only come from an engineered race. Taken in together the two scents were like parts of a greater whole, Minako providing more of the smoothness, and Rei more of the edge.

Curiouser and curiouser. "We're sorry to drop in unexpectedly when you're working," Gwen said, filling the space with pleasantries while she analyzed this new enigma.

"Not at all. Minako tells me about how busy you are, I'm happy you can take the time to visit our shrine." As clear as day,  
Gwen could hear her subvocalize *It's her! I know it's her!*

"We're meeting my parents for dinner in Roppongi," Minako explained. "We're early, so Gwen suggested we come visit you."

"How nice. Can I offer you some tea?" Rei was gaining back a little more of her composure, there was actually a bit of life in her voice now. Her fear scent was still thick in the air,  
but Gwen marvelled at how little visual indication Rei was now giving of it. Her mental discipline was everything Minako had suggested.

"Gwen, do you think we have time?" Minako asked eagerly. "They have such a nice tea room here!"

"I should think so," Gwen said. "I daresay I can make up some more time between here and Roppongi."

"I didn't realize you were in a hurry," Rei said. *Please, say you have to go* Gwen heard.

"Not at all, I'm sure we have time," Gwen said.

"Well, if you're sure. Please follow me," Rei said. She led them toward the small residence to one side of the yard that fronted the main temple.

"Rei, I can't help thinking we've met before," Gwen suddenly said.

Skipped heartbeat. *Yes.* "No, Ingolfsson-san, I don't think so. I'm sure I would remember meeting such a beautiful lady."

"My, what a sweet thing to say," Gwen said. And likewise, Gwen would probably have remembered meeting Rei... would *certainly*  
have remembered taking her scent. But she did look hauntingly familiar, a matured version of a memory, almost as if they had met years ago, when Rei was younger. Or even... could it be? Her memories of that night were rather clouded, but she distinctly remembered some very young girls dressed as what she now knew to be shrine maidens.

She thought it would be amusing to ask where Rei had been seven years ago, gauge her reaction. But she decided against it. Even if it were true, it would just be a curious coincidence, of no consequence.

A short while later when she and Minako were leaving, Rei's fear scent had barely subsided.

*****

Sitting alone in Minako's bedroom, Ami's mind was cast back to when she had first seen this room. It was not even a year ago,  
but now it seemed like a lifetime ago.

Sailor Venus had been the last of the Inner Senshi to reveal herself. She had appeared to them suddenly in the midst of their most desperate battle with the Dark Kingdom. Ami remembered well, the avenging angel who drove their enemies away and then stood before them, smiling warmly, introducing herself as the fifth sailor senshi. With hardly time to size up or even properly welcome their new companion they had been thrown into their next battle. Of necessity it had been a friendship forged in fire.

Only later had there been leisure to get to know the new warrior who had joined their ranks. And warrior she was, for Minako was none other than the mythical Sailor V, who had been fighting the denizens of the Dark Kingdom before any of them. Still new to their roles as sailor senshi, and still faced with the growing power of the Dark Kingdom, Ami and her three friends had been thankful for the appearance of this veteran warrior come to help them.

How surprised we had been to find Minako cut from the same cloth as our dear Usagi, Ami thought. She remembered the shy,  
cheerful girl introducing her four new friends to her parents,  
then inviting them to see her room. It had looked exactly like it did now. A little girl's room full of stuffed animals of every size and colour, a private little fantasy land. Everything bright and pretty, right down to the pink bedspread with the heart motif.

Today, being in this room felt almost surreal. There was no hint here of the dark, mysterious forces that seemed to be playing with Minako's soul. The forces that Ami was here to challenge.

The door opened, and Minako walked in carrying a tray. "Sorry to keep you waiting," she said brightly. "I also brought out some manju for us, I thought you'd like some." She set the tray down between them on the carpet. As well as their tea it had a plate with several of the small white sweets.

"They look beautiful. Did you make them?"

"With my mom's help, yeah." She picked up one of the manju and held it close to Ami's face. "Ahhh!" she sang encouragingly.

Ami opened wide and took a big bite. It tasted wonderful. "That's really good. You must have worked hard on these."

"Nothing but the best for my girl," Minako said, winking. She popped the other half of the manju into her mouth, and smiled while chewing on it. She seemed very proud of her roundabout way of stealing an indirect kiss.

Ami smiled back. This was almost like having the old Minako back. How tempting it would be to just lose myself in the moment, Ami thought, forget the outside world and relax with my friend. *My lover* she corrected herself. No, she could not just pretend that everything was okay. She couldn't let herself be distracted from her purpose in coming here.

"Minako, I got a call from Rei yesterday," Ami said, making no attempt to hide the seriousness of what she was saying. "She told me that you brought Gwendolyn to the temple. I was really surprised to hear that."

Minako raised an eyebrow. "Why? We just dropped in for a quick visit on our way to Roppongi, that's all."

"Minako, didn't you think how it might upset Rei, suddenly meeting Gwendolyn like that? She was almost crying when I talked to her."

Minako just seemed mildly annoyed that Ami was making an issue of this. "It was Gwen's idea, she just said she wanted to meet one of my friends. And she was really nice to Rei, too. I couldn't understand why Rei was being so cold. I was almost embarrassed."

"She wasn't cold, she was terrified," Ami said. "You saw how she reacted just to seeing Gwendolyn's picture, just before her fainting spell. She got the same reaction from meeting her,  
only worse."

Minako sipped at the tea she had just poured herself. "Ami,  
get to the point. Is this supposed to prove something?"

"No, Minako, I just think you should have been more considerate of Rei's feelings, that's all." Her cold tone was calculated. She wanted to drive home the point that Minako had done something very out of character.

It seemed to touch a nerve. "Was I supposed to tell Gwen we can't visit my friend?" Minako said defensively.

"I think you could have made some excuse. And I'm not just talking about that either. Rei was really hurt by what you said to her the other day. It was very difficult for her, talking to us about what happened to her sensei. I think she deserves better than to have you mocking her." She couldn't help letting her growing anger show up in her voice. Rei's agonized, tearful voice was still fresh in her mind, telling her of the monster that Minako had brought to her holy place.

Minako was obviously not taking kindly to being lectured. She fixed Ami with a frigid stare, which Ami returned. I can't back down, she told herself. I have to make her understand.

After a moment, Minako let out an exasperated sigh. "Okay,  
maybe I was too rough on her. But I still think she's got you all running around chasing shadows. Eventually somebody's going to have to make her see what she's doing."

"I wish I could make you see what *you* are doing," Ami said,  
seeing her opening. Minako looked confused, as she had expected. She took Minako's hand in both of hers. "Minako,  
maybe we disagree on what to conclude from what Rei has told us.  
But we've had worse disagreements than this before and it's never made you turn on us like this."

Minako's expression was still cold. "This is different. Rei's managed to convince you all that my friend is a monster, based on nothing. How am I supposed to take that?"

"Nobody's convinced of anything yet, least of all Rei. She's already admitted to us that she may have a blind spot regarding anything that reminds her of what happened to her sensei. Can't you at least admit that you might have a blind spot regarding Gwendolyn?"

Minako had an odd look on her face, as if she had suddenly comprehended something. She gently pulled her hand away. Ami let it go. "I don't think it's what Rei says that's bothering you, Ami."

Ami frowned. "What do you mean?"

"You've probably guessed what sort of a relationship I have with Gwendolyn."

Ami was taken aback by this. Hesitantly, she nodded. "Yes, I suspected."

"And you don't approve."

"Minako, I'm certainly in no position to criticize you, but Gwendolyn is a different matter. For her to start that sort of relationship with somebody your age, she must be utterly irresponsible. I can't believe she would do that if she cared about you."

Minako seemed a bit shaken by that. She looked down, seemed to think about what Ami had said. When she looked back up again,  
she looked hurt. "Ami... does it really bother you that much? I mean, me being with Gwen?"

Ami didn't like where this was headed, tried to get back on track. "What bothers me is the changes I've seen - that we have all seen - in you since you met her. Especially the thoughtless way you treat your friends. I've watched you do things I know you wouldn't dream of doing just a few weeks ago."

Minako looked at her sadly. She seemed on the verge of tears.  
"Ami-chan, do I treat you any differently than before? Do you think that I love you any less?"

Instantly, the cold, analytical part of Ami's mind told her exactly how she could leverage Minako's vulnerability: force her to choose between us. Threaten her with isolation, not only from Ami, but from her other friends. However painful it was,  
Minako would make the right choice. That was virtually certain.

This is for her own good, Ami tried to tell herself. I have no choice. No matter how I'll hate myself, this is for her own good.

"Minako, I..." *I can't. I'm too weak*. "I don't think that at all."

"And do you love me any less, just because I said a few stupid things to Rei?" Minako asked, as if her life depended on the answer.

*I just can't do this* "No Minako, of course not."

Minako smiled. It looked forced. "But you're still mad at me,  
I can tell. I guess the others are too. I feel kind of silly now, making a scene at Rei's place like that. It's just that.  
well, if you could all meet Gwen, I'm sure you'd all see how nice she is. You know, maybe after I've moved in I can ask Gwen to let you all come visit us in Hakone."

Ami frowned. "What do you mean, moved in?"

Minako's eyes went wide. Her hands shot to her face and she gave a little squeal. "Oh, I don't believe it! I forgot, I haven't told you yet!"

Minako's mood had instantly switched to one of bubbling excitement, but Ami was still just confused. "Haven't told me what?" she asked.

"I'll be moving into Gwen's villa! She wants to teach me her family's martial arts style! We've already been starting, it's really advanced stuff! It's supposed to be centuries old, so old nobody even remembers what it's called."

"Minako, slow down!" Ami said, bringing her hands up, motioning her friend to stop her gushing. "Are you telling me you're moving out of here?"

"That's right! I've already started packing, I'll be moving in day after tomorrow!"

Ami just shook her head, still in shock. "This makes no sense,  
you're moving to Hakone just to do training?"

"Mostly. I may even be doing some part time work for Rising Wind. Gwen thinks it would be good for me."

"Minako, this is crazy," Ami said, her head still spinning. "What about your school? Are you telling me somebody's going to drive you to Tokyo every day?"

"No, don't be silly! I'll be taking private tutoring and computer based learning. It's all been arranged. Gwen says she can probably get some of her research staff to help me too. I may start learning physics from Professor Van Kreveld!"

"And what do your parents think of all this?" Ami asked,  
starting to become a little more calm and analytical again.

"My mom was a little nervous about the idea, but really they're both thrilled. We all talked about it over dinner a couple of days ago. They both just love Gwen to death, so it didn't take much persuading."

Ami couldn't believe this. "You mean, they're just letting you move out?"

"Oh, I'll still be staying here whenever I'm in town. I'll probably be here just about every weekend, so it's not like they won't see me."

Something else suddenly occurred to Ami. "Is Artemis going too?"

"No, Gwen says cats don't seem to like her much, so I didn't even want to ask her."

The way Minako could so casually abandon her friend and mentor shocked Ami beyond words. She turned away, and just leaned back against Minako's bed, feeling numb. *Didn't even want to ask her*...

Minako regarded her for a moment, then crawled around the tea tray to kneel in front of Ami. She reached forward and took both of Ami's hands in her own. She looked worried and confused. "Ami-chan, what's wrong?"

"Everything's wrong!" Ami shot back, almost giving in to hysteria. "You're going away to move in with someone you met just a few weeks ago and I just don't understand why!"

"Oh Ami," Minako said, reaching forward to stroke her hair. "I'm not going away. We can still see each other."

Ami shook her head. "It's not that. I just can't believe you've had enough time to really think about this."

Minako moved to sit against her bed beside Ami. "Ami, do you remember what you talked to us about that one time, about our powers as Sailor Senshi?"

Ami blinked, had no clue where this was headed. "I don't follow you."

"You were telling us how maybe our powers as Sailor Senshi increase in proportion to our own natural abilities. That maybe it was our physical training that was allowing us to gain more powers. Since I've been training with Gwen I've felt a lot more confident, not just in martial arts but in general. I really think if she teaches me more and if I can pass it on to the rest of you, it will help us as Sailor Senshi."

"That was just a theory of mine," Ami said, strangely calmed by having some facts to argue about. "I have nothing to back it up. Besides, I think you're just rationalizing. This has nothing to do with training, it has everything to do with Gwen."

Minako looked hurt. All her enthusiasm seemed to have melted away. "Ami, I really thought you'd be happy for me."

Ami looked into Minako's eyes and could see that there would be no changing her mind. Ami had thrown away the last opportunity to do that just a few minutes ago. If she had only known what Minako really had planned...

Ami put a hand on Minako's shoulder. "I still think you're rushing into this, but... if you're sure it's what you want,  
I'll try to accept it. I'll try to be happy for you."

Minako smiled warmly. "Thank you, Ami." They embraced, and Minako gave her a kiss that lingered and gradually became more passionate.

When they came up for air, Ami's heart was already racing. "Minako... your mother is here, I don't think this is a good idea..."

"Relax Ami, I just want to cuddle." She rested her head on Ami's shoulder, held her tightly. "I love you, Ami-chan," she whispered.

Ami kissed her forehead. "I love you too, Minako." They sat silently like that for a while. Trying to overcome her feeling of dread, against her better judgement, Ami just lost herself in the moment.

*****

"Just give it a little nudge, girl. It'll snap right into place."

Minako reached out to the string of amino acids that seemed to be floating in front of her and did what Gwen had suggested:  
give it a little nudge where she was hoping for it to bend. It did, and the long molecule collapsed on itself, forming a new protein. She examined the result. "Does it look right?" she asked hesitantly.

"You'll have to do some experimenting, see whether it does what you want."

"Okay." Gwen watched as Minako moved her gloved hands about in front of her, touching and moving virtual objects that only she could see. Gwen wasn't wearing VR goggles, so she watched a nearby monitor that showed a rough 2D view of what Minako was doing. She was bringing up a cell membrane, to see how her new protein would react to it.

"I thought there was a protein database in here," Minako asked.  
She looked like a shaman casting spells, sitting there with her eyes hidden by the wraparound goggles, her hands moving around in an invisible world. She was wearing the purple skirt, white shirt and red scarf that Gwen understood to be her school uniform. Force of habit.

"There is, but the way I've set it up it won't tell you what protein you've got until you've correctly catalogued it's properties under enough conditions. That's the point of the exercise, to get a feel for what the molecule can do even before you've learned it's name."

"It's sure a lot different than my old biology class. They were just getting me to memorize the names of all sorts of organic molecules."

"No sense knowing what they're called until you know what they do," Gwen said. She looked down at the big Silicon Graphics tower computer housing she was leaning against, imagined it's horribly crude multiple processors straining to keep up with Minako's manipulations of her virtual world. Since they had switched much of their operations to a new generation of computers just developed by Rising Wind, the SGI units had become a bit of a fifth wheel. But they had served there purpose. They had been good enough to teach elementary Draka genetic engineering techniques to her researchers, just as they were now teaching Minako at an even more elementary level.

Good enough to let them design the pandemic that would be unleashed upon the world in the event of Gwen's demise.

"I have to go now, Minako-chan, we're firing up the reactor in just a little while." She bent down and gave Minako a kiss.

Lost in her nanometre-scale world, Minako didn't see it coming.  
She squealed, then giggled. "Onesama, you made me drop a whole peptide chain!"

"Well, just cheat and set time flowing backwards a bit."

Minako touched something that froze her simulation, brought her goggles up to her forehead. "Onesama, are you really going to be starting up that reactor today?" She sounded worried. Gwen had noticed how a lot of people in this country got nervous at the mention of a nuclear anything. She couldn't understand why.  
Their country had only ever been hit by two trifling bombs,  
after all.

Gwen smiled reassuringly. "Yes dear, but don't you worry, it's perfectly safe. This could be a big day, Minako. If we pull it off, what we're doing here will change the world forever." She reached over and pulled Minako's goggles back down. "Now back to work, when I get back I'll expect you to know every protein in the examples I gave you like they were your own family."

"Yes, Onesama," Minako said brightly. She reached for an invisible switch and restarted her simulation.

Gwen walked from her office to their bedroom. She swung aside a full-length mirror to reveal a steel door. She tapped at a numeric keypad beside it, and the door swung open. She ran down the staircase beyond it, hearing both the door and the mirror swing back into place behind her. She came to her private little room, which was more of a concrete bunker. It was lit only in ultraviolet. Mere human eyes had no business prying here. She stripped out of her casual slacks and blouse, pulled her black body armour out of a vault and slipped it on. This was the only appropriate attire for the occasion. She opened another steel door, and ran down the tunnel beyond it, not because she was in a particular hurry but just to work off nervous energy. As she had told Minako, this could be a big day. She ran up the stairs at the other end of the tunnel, and keyed open another door.

Gwen walked into the meeting room in the basement level of the beacon complex, and without a word sat down at the end of the table. She simply took it for granted that all the invited members of her inner circle were already here waiting for her,  
as they had been ordered. She looked at Van Kreveld. "Report."

He bowed. "Yes, Mistress. Everything is on schedule. The injectors are primed and ready. The operators are standing by. At your command, we can begin the full power test."

Gwen moved her gaze to her chief of security. "Report."

Iwata, a big slightly overweight man with a homely round face and a crew cut, shifted nervously. He was an old member of the inner circle, from the days before Rising Wind when Gwen was raising her initial capital from the Tokyo underworld. A Yakuza operative, he was more comfortable in that underworld than in the corporate world Gwen had thrust him into. But he was capable and devoted.

"Yes, Mistress," he said in his gravelly voice. "All non-essential personnel have been sent home. My men did a sweep of the complex and are now standing watch. They have orders to admit nobody."

Without in any way acknowledging the reports she had received,  
Gwen stood up and gazed around the dozen people seated before her. "Then we begin in ten minutes. We will keep the beacon up as long as we can. If the Samothracians are out there as I suspect, this will bring them running, so we may not have much time. If my people at the other end are prepared, they can lock onto our signal and start coming across in a matter of minutes."  
She suddenly grinned at them. "Our leader tends to take a hands on approach, so I would expect him to be one of the first to come across. And he is known for generously acknowledging the efforts of our servants. If we pull this off, then by tonight you may all be dining at the feet of the Archon himself." She noted the expressions of surprise and awe on the faces in front of her. Over the years she had managed to instill a feeling of reverence for the Final Society among the humans of her inner circle. They almost regarded the Archon himself as a god.

"We will proceed," Gwen said. Wordlessly, everyone filed out of the room to take their positions. Gwen walked down the hall,  
up a narrow set of steps, and emerged into the reactor room itself.

This room occupied most of the building. The reactor towered above her, looking like an immense donut embedded halfway into the floor. It's torus shape was banded by enormous gleaming rings, each a magnet weighing several tons. Gwen climbed a steel ladder and walked down a catwalk that led out over the reactor.

She was alone in the room. Her human servants would control the beacon from adjacent rooms. Once it was at full power, this room would be far too dangerous for fragile humans.

She could already hear the beacon humming as the injectors fed plasma into the reactor. Through her transducer, now her only link with the outside world, she heard Van Kreveld recite the power readings. "Ten percent. Twenty percent. Thirty percent."  
The humming slowly built up to a shrill whine, then an earsplitting scream.

"Sixty percent." Just a couple of minutes more. Gwen gripped the handrail before her, almost bending it. It was going to work. After seven years, she could finally welcome her brothers and sisters to their new world...

Bright sparks like little bolts of lightning suddenly started to dance between the great magnets. In the space in the middle of the donut shape, what looked like a whirlwind of glowing blue gas suddenly appeared. Gwen's heart leapt. This wasn't at all what they were expecting to see.

There was a colossal detonation as the little whirlwind collapsed and was suddenly a blinding white beam pointing straight up. Gwen's head snapped up in time for her to see an expanding fireball where the beam hit the ceiling far above. She threw up her arms as debris came raining down on the room.

The reactor was dark and silent.

"Zero percent." Van Kreveld's voice betrayed only a hint of the impossibility he had just witnessed on his monitors.

Gwen stared at the dead beacon in disbelief. She knew enough physics to realize that what had just happened was impossible. It defied the laws of physics as Draka science understood them.

The fear that had been gnawing at the back of Gwen's mind for years, the fear she dare not even admit to herself, suddenly came welling up. The laws of physics were different in this universe. The beacon would not work. At least not this one. To do what she intended she would need a level of understanding of the local laws of nature equal to her people's understanding of her own universe. Only then could she build her beacon.

It would not just be building a device based on designs pulled from her transducer. It would mean starting from basic principles. At best it would not be for decades. Maybe centuries. Maybe never.

Gwen threw her head back and howled her despair, a wolf forever separated from its pack. She ripped the railing right off the catwalk and sent it clattering to the floor below.

*****

Lafarge jerked his head around from the holographic display in front of him as the curtains over the window were suddenly backlit as if by a bolt of lightning. Less than a second later,  
his remote sensors all started screaming at him. A second later, a sharp thunderclap rattled everything in the room.

He killed the hologram, ran to the window and threw open the curtains. It was a clear night, though with what his sensors were saying it could not have been lightning anyway. He brought his binoculars to his eyes, focused on the beacon complex across the valley. A glowing, roiling plume of smoke billowed up from the top of the building. It rapidly dissipated. In seconds,  
there was nothing to see but the dark building itself sticking up through the trees, only dimly lit by the floodlights that lit up the surrounding grounds.

Lafarge went back to his desk and activated the hologram,  
bringing up the sensor readings. His computer had already started its analysis. A picture was beginning to form, but a rather confusing one. It had definitely been the beacon trying to start up. But something had happened. His computer, running through all possible failure scenarios for a molehole beacon,  
was coming up with blanks. What had happened simply made no sense.

He had been busy trying to pinpoint the Snake's centre of operations, which would be the location of its inner computer network. After a series of false leads, he had finally been drawn right back here.

Right where it was keeping itself just as busy as it was keeping me, Lafarge thought bitterly. Had it not been for some inexplicable malfunction, it might already be welcoming a Draka vanguard to their new world.

Lafarge picked up the innocuous looking jacket that would reshape into the upper portion of his body armour. He would not give it a second chance.

*****

The door to the control room swung open with a bang as Gwen strode through it. She looked at Iwata. "Bring all your men here, form a perimeter defense. Notify me of any intruders immediately." She looked at Van Kreveld. "Get your technicians running diagnostics on the injectors and the magnets, never mind the rest. Then get everyone else into the conference room." She walked across the room and exited another door. The fear she smelled in the room left no doubt that her orders would be obeyed.

Gwen paced across one end of the spare conference room until everyone was assembled. Then she stood at the end of the table.  
"As soon as the diagnostics are done, we will effect any needed adjustments and prepare the reactor for self destruction. It is useless to us as a beacon, but we can use it as bait. My nose tells me the Samothracians are out there. They're probably just as confused over what happened as we were. But they won't take chances. When they think the time is right they will attack. That could be minutes or hours or days. When they do, we will let them come right in and blow it up along with them."

She looked around the room. They had all known for a long time that this contingency might arise, that they may have to use the reactor as a weapon against the cyborg warriors that would come to destroy it. Van Kreveld looked the most distressed at the thought of his lovely toy becoming a bomb. But even he showed no sign of raising a protest. There was only fear and grim resignation. He would give her no trouble.

Gwen set them all to their tasks and dismissed them. She exited through her private door and walked down the tunnel back to her villa. She was playing a different game now, one where she could expect no help from home. The Samothracians were on the way, she could smell it. They would hit this place with anything short of nukes. Besides herself, the only resistance would be from Iwata's chosen men. They were the only ones in the buildings who were actually armed. Japanese law being what it was, even that had been hard to arrange. The regular security guards were little more than window dressing. But a few men with smuggled guns would be little more than a nuisance to what was coming. At best they would buy her time. Time to set her reactor to overload and vaporize them all.

Gwen grinned to herself as she walked, getting into the spirit of the new game. In a way this was better, doing it alone,  
having an entire planet for her own personal little playground. Once the Samothracians were out of the way, the world would be... now, what was that lovely phrase she heard them use here? Ah, yes.

The world is my oyster.

She paused in the bunker below her bedroom. She had been thinking of sending Minako to safety along with other members of her household but... her inner circle was more important to her than ever now, perhaps it was time to expand it a little. Gwen would much rather bring Minako closer than send her away. Going with her instinct, she bounded up the stairs and threw the door open.

Minako looked up from where she had been lying on the bed,  
startled to see Gwen emerge from a door she didn't know was there. Her face was streaked with tears. "Onesama!" she cried.  
She leapt up off the bed and ran into Gwen's arms, sobbing. "I heard the explosion and they wouldn't let me out of the house! Nobody would tell me anything! Everyone is gone, there's just those men at the doors! What happened? Are you okay?"

"Yes dear, I'm fine," Gwen said, hugging Minako close, stroking her hair. "You just calm down and dry your tears, and I'll tell you all about it, okay?"

Minako sniffed. Her head, nestled against Gwen's shoulder,  
nodded. "Okay." She stepped back and looked Gwen up and down,  
seeming to suddenly become aware of what Gwen was wearing. She took a couple of steps back, still staring at Gwen's body armour. She seemed overcome by a fear utterly different than the near hysteria she was in just a few moments ago. *Rei said she wore black armour,* Gwen heard her say under her breath.

Gwen remembered the lovely shrine maiden, frightened almost out of her wits at the sight of the Drakon. It was beginning to make more sense.

She fixed Minako with a stern look. "Minako, tell me what's wrong."

Minako pointed at her, her hand shaking. "Onesama, that outfit..."

"It's body armour. I wear it whenever I'm doing something dangerous."

Minako tried to calm down. "I'm sorry Onesama, I'm still upset..."

"Minako, I think there's something you're not telling me." She stepped forward, took Minako's hand. "Tell me what's really bothering you."

Haltingly, nervously, Minako related the tale as she had heard it, of the ceremony that Rei attended, and of the woman in black who appeared, killed her sensei and destroyed the temple which had stood on this ground. Gwen listened silently, hardly daring to believe what she was hearing, reliving that horrible first night in this new world.

When she was done, Minako looked down, her hands clasped before her, unable to meet Gwen's gaze. "Onesama... I'm sorry I didn't tell you about this sooner. I never believed any of it, but.  
I should have told you anyway."

Gwen placed a finger under Minako's chin and gently raised her head. Minako was surprised to see Gwen's warm smile. "That's okay, Minako-chan. It looks like we've both been keeping secrets from each other. But the time for that is over."

Some of the fear crept back into Minako's face. "Onesama, was that... was that really...?" She just couldn't ask the question.

Gwen nodded. "Yes, Minako, that was me at the temple. But that terrible day is just one part of a very long story, a story that I think I finally need to tell you. Let's go sit down." She put an arm around Minako's shoulders, steered her to the loveseat that stood before the bedroom's massive fireplace. There was still an edge of fear in the girl's scent. No doubt her spiritualist friend had quite a tale to tell of Gwen's entry into this world.

The intercom by the bed suddenly chimed. Irritated at the interruption, Gwen patched the call directly to her transducer with a subvocalized command. "Yes, what is it?" she asked.

"Mistress, we have an intruder." It was Iwata. There was a hint of fear like she had never heard in his voice before, not even in the early days when they had done hits together. "He's using a strange gun, at least two men are down already."

*****

Minako was wondering how Gwen could answer the intercom from across the room when suddenly Gwen seemed to transform before her eyes. Listening to some voice that Minako could not hear,  
her whole body seemed to tense up, her leisurely stance becoming that of a leopard ready to spring. Her calm expression dissolved behind a mask of alarm and rage.

"Where?" Gwen barked, as if responding to that inner voice. Minako stepped back, frightened and bewildered. Gwen did not even seem to be aware of her presence any more.

"Engage him with all your men. Keep him out of the control room as long as you can. That's where I'm headed. Out." Gwen's head snapped in Minako's direction and they locked eyes. Minako was paralyzed by that wide-eyed stare. It was full of an inhuman hatred directed not at her but at something else.

"Stay here until I come for you," Gwen said in a voice that seemed to penetrate to the depth of Minako's soul. Minako found herself simply nodding. Gwen spun about, made the door in two bounds and ran out of sight at impossible speed.

Minako was held in place as if by a spell. She wanted so desperately run after her Onesama, but the need to obey was overwhelming. She had no idea what was going on, she only understood that Gwen was in trouble. Gwen needed help.

Old instincts eventually took over, broke the spell. Minako ran out the same way Gwen had gone, sprinting through the large office and out into the hall. She ran straight for the great double doors that led out of this wing of the mansion. The guard who had been there was gone now. That was good. Minako had been fully intending to take him down if he tried to stop her, she was glad she wouldn't have to do that after all.

She flew through the door and ran through the outer garden to the gate of the villa wall that opened to the path leading to the research building. She stopped at the open gate, surveying the scene before her. There was a line of men running down the path toward the big building, silhouetted by the floodlights along the building. They were the same big men in dark suits who had earlier swarmed into the mansion, denying her exit. She could swear she saw some of them with drawn handguns. She could hear discharges of some sort from inside the building. They were nothing like the explosion she had heard earlier, but to be heard from outside the building and from this distance, they had to be more than just handguns being fired. Her eye was attracted by a flash on the roof. There was a loud explosion as the flash became a small fireball and a stream of glowing debris that arced up as if blasted away by something shot from within the building.

Minako had seen enough. She ducked into a dark space in the garden behind the villa wall, brought her transformation pen up over her head and cried out "Venus Star Power Make Up!" Instantly she was thrown into a world of dazzling orange light. Her body felt like it was melting under the rush of power that shot through every fibre of her being. The light subsided, and her body seemed to solidify again. In place of the school uniform was the Sailor Senshi outfit that mirrored its form. The short orange skirt, orange collar, dark blue ribbon at her breast and large yellow ribbon at the small of her back marked the otherwise white outfit as the distinctive uniform of Sailor Venus.

Not bothering to go back to the gate, Sailor Venus cleared the villa wall in one bound and landed running. There was nobody else on the path anymore. She covered the hundred meter distance in a time that would have broken the official world record by a wide margin had anyone been timing her, arriving at the glass double door that served as a side entrance. It and the inner door beyond it opened to her, and there was no guard. She would not have let lock or guard impede her, but she noted that either the guards were that desperate to deal with what was going on inside or felt they faced no further threat from outside.

Another discharge like a thunderclap reverberated through the building, followed closely by yet another. Gwen had said something about a single very large room that took up most of the building. Whatever was going on, it was likely happening there. Venus raced through the anteroom, through another door and into a short, wide corridor with closed doors on either side. At the end of the hallway was another set of double doors. Probably leading to the big room. Choosing speed over caution, Venus bound for the doors, threw them open and skidded to a stop just beyond them.

The big room reminded her of a nuclear power plant she had toured once, though the big banded donut that dominated the room was certainly like no reactor she had ever heard of. There were all sorts of pipes, wires and machinery all up and down the high walls, with catwalks at three levels going along the walls and out across the cavernous space between them. Normally this room must be as bright and clean as any working power plant, but now it was littered with rubble and the air was full of haze. Plumes of smoke rose up from a few places around the room where a piece of piping or machinery was blasted away, charred black or actually on fire.

A horrible burning smell assaulted her nostrils. She glanced to the floor not far from her, and with horror realized that the two smouldering black heaps lying there were bodies. Only their shape identified them as human.

She had less than a second to take this all in before a thunderbolt hit the room.

A beam like lightning flashed across the room straight as an arrow, piercing the gloom with its light, setting the smoke to throwing eerie shadows against the walls. Where the beam touched a catwalk to her right a bright fireball erupted,  
sending more smoke and debris out into the room. In its light,  
Venus saw a dark shape dart from where the beam had hit. Almost too fast to see, it ducked into a new hiding place.

It was Gwen.

Almost immediately, two more beams shot out in quick succession, not quite as bright or as loud. They originated several meters from where Gwen had disappeared. Was that Gwen,  
Venus thought? Could she move that fast? Her eyes darted over to her left where Gwen's shots landed. Visible only for milliseconds in the light of the dissipating fireballs, a figure flew over the ground and disappeared behind another bulky piece of machinery. A man, covered head to foot it some close-fitting silvery outfit, his head covered by a mirrored helmet. He had moved with the same inhuman speed as Gwen.

The enemy. Sailor Venus had identified her target.

She leapt behind a wide pipe, looking beyond it towards where she thought her target had disappeared. From a completely different location, a catwalk two levels up, another beam stabbed out. There was the usual discharge, but no sound of an explosion where it hit. Venus shifted her gaze across the room just on time to see Gwen's spinning body disappear behind the bulk of the reactor, a trail of smoke showing where she had fallen from.

Sailor Venus almost cried out at that moment, but the part of her that had kept her alive through a hundred battles was in full control. She slid out from her cover, threw her arm up high to call forth her power and turned to where she prayed her target would be.

Exactly as she expected, the man was already bounding over the reactor in full view, moving in to finish off his kill.

"Crescent Beam!" Light exploded from her extended fingertip and a dazzling yellow beam of light stabbed across the room.

He didn't even see it coming. The beam caught him solidly in his midsection, flared brightly and sent him flying. Like a rag doll, he came down hard on one of the huge magnets he had been running across and fell down the other side of the reactor, out of Venus' sight.

Without hesitation, Sailor Venus sprinted around the left side of the towering reactor core. She noted smouldering, blackened spots where it had been hit. She had no idea whether it was dangerous to be near this damaged reactor. She had no choice,  
she would have to finish off her target quickly and permanently so that she could get Gwen to safety. Gwen...

Her moment's inattention nearly cost Sailor Venus her life. When the man came into view he was down on the ground but very much alive and already levelling his gun at her. She dove for the floor and the beam passed right through the space her heart had occupied less than a second ago. She could feel the heat of its passage. It singed the tips of the long hair that flew behind her. She rolled and leaped high into the air. Apparently higher than the man had expected for his next shot passed straight under her. She landed beside a bulky piece of machinery that hid him from view.

She had hoped to take him from an unexpected direction, but now realized her mistake. The man was between her and Gwen. There was nothing preventing him from going to finish off his first target.

In one graceful move, Sailor Venus brought both her arms up high, then sharply back down to her sides. Her hair whipped up around her as the power she called forth erupted into a whirlwind. "Venus Love Me Chain!" she breathed, and the shimmering yellow chain materialized around her, spiralling up into the air. With a gesture she sent it shooting up over the machine she hid behind and back down to towards the floor. She closed her eyes and focused on what the chain was swooping down on. Movement. A living thing. A bright concentration of power held in its hand. She sent the chain straight for what she hoped and prayed was its weapon. She felt it strike, wrap 'round and 'round, take hold. She had it.

With a cry of effort, Venus grabbed her end of the floating chain and whipped it up as hard as she could. It arced upwards,  
but not nearly as quickly as she would have expected. It was meeting resistance.

The man sailed up into the air at the end of the chain. Incredibly, he had managed to hold on to the gun that Venus had wanted to vest him of.

The chain with which she held the gun went slack as the man came to the top of his ballistic path. Twisting through the air, he let off two wild shots. The second one hit close enough to send Venus sprawling, little bits of white-hot metal from the explosion searing her flesh in several places. She cried out in pain. Her concentration broken, the chain dissolved into nothing. The man in his silvery space suit came down hard but was on his feet in an instant. Even as Sailor Venus threw her hand up to call forth another Crescent Beam she knew it would not be on time. The man levelled his gun at her and a bolt of light hit him from behind.

He stumbled forward, the spot on his back where he had been hit trailing smoke. Without hesitation Venus let loose her Crescent Beam. It flared against his shoulder. The impact threw him to the floor, and his useless arm dropped his weapon. Almost before it hit the ground he scooped it up by the barrel in his other hand and dove for cover, barely avoiding another bolt from Venus' unseen ally.

Venus ran after him, pursuing him relentlessly, not wanting to give him a chance to recover. To her surprise, he ran straight for one of the many doors that led into the room. This set of doors had been blown open from outside, and lay smouldering on the ground along with three more charred bodies. He was going out the way he had gotten in. He was running away.

In a moment, the silvery figure was out of sight. Venus turned around and ran for where she thought the shots that had saved her life had come from. Leaping across the tops of the big machines that dotted the floor to get a better vantage, she soon spotted a dark figure lying on the floor behind a big steel cabinet, not far from the reactor core. "Onesama!" she cried out, leaping back down to the floor and running.

*****

Gwen nearly shot the newcomer. Crippled, maddened by the pain and the territorial violation, she was barely coherent enough to be able to distinguish her targets. But the voice that called out to her was familiar. The protective instinct it evoked froze her trigger finger a second before she would have fired.

She lowered her weapon and watched the woman running towards her. It was Minako, and yet it was not. The brightly coloured outfit was the least of the things that distinguished this little warrior angel from the pretty young woman Gwen thought she knew so well. Minako was graceful enough, but the way this woman leaped and ran made her seem weightless. Her movement was utterly different than the mechanical efficiency of a Samothracian cyborg warrior or even the leopard grace of a Draka, more like gazelle given human form. And there seemed to be something in her face that was different. The only thing Gwen could pin down was the odd golden ornament that circled her forehead, but without hearing the voice she would hardly have recognized this as being Minako.

The girl came running and dropped down beside Gwen, who was still down on her stomach, her gun held before her at the ready.  
"Onesama, are you hurt?" she asked in a voice full of anguish.

Gwen looked up at her benefactor's face, so full of worry and sympathy. Asking a silly but straightforward question like that, this must be Minako. "I can't use my leg," she replied. The Samothracian's shot had caught her just above her right hip,  
her armour absorbing most but not all of it. There was nerve damage, for that leg was now completely numb. Her engineered healing system would already be at work, but it would be hours or days before she could use the leg again. "What happened to the enemy?" she asked, ignoring the mystery presented by this warrior girl, focusing on the immediate danger.

"He ran out the way he came," the woman said. "But he may come back. I need to get you to safety, will you let me carry you?"

*Carry me?* The Drakon knew she had to weigh at least twice as much as this little wisp of a girl. With such dense skeleton and muscle tissue, Draka massed more than humans of the same size. "I think that would take too long," she said, dismissing the idea.

"It will take me just a few seconds to get you out of the room.  
If you think you can be moved, please let me," the woman said,  
already looking Gwen up and down as if looking for obvious signs of injury.

She's serious, Gwen thought. "Okay," she conceded. She rolled over onto her back, placed her gun against her thigh where her body armour immediately latched onto it, locking it in place. With a reflexive, muttered word of apology, the woman reached under Gwen's back and knees. Gwen wrapped her arms around the woman's shoulders, and was astonished to find herself lifted effortlessly up off the ground.

"The doors under the control room window," Gwen said between gritted teeth. The movement had sent fresh pain lancing up her spine. The woman located the direction, nodded, and started running. Gwen's surprise at being lifted off the ground was nothing to the astonishment she felt now. Carrying twice her own mass, this delicate little angel floated across the room,  
her feet hardly seeming to touch the floor. Having steeled herself to having her wound jarred even more severely, Gwen was getting a ride as smooth as silk.

They arrived at the doors. The woman opened one of them by backing into the push bar. This led them into a short corridor.  
Gwen directed her to the stairs that would take them to the basement level conference room. As well as the pain and further damage even this woman's delicate handling was causing her, Gwen was becoming acutely aware of her helplessness. She had never been in such a crippled state before, she wanted to just lie down somewhere, to not be reminded that she could not move on her own.

In the conference room, Gwen asked to be set down on the plain,  
businesslike sofa at one end of the room. The woman complied,  
but fixed her with a worried, disapproving look. "Shouldn't we get you to a hospital or something?" she asked.

"I'll heal on my own," Gwen said. This was true enough, a hospital could do nothing for her that her body's own engineered repair systems could not.

"I'd like to have a look at your wound," the woman said,  
pointing to the spot where Gwen's armour was ragged and shredded. Her armour molecular-level repair mechanisms were much further along in their simpler repair process than were the immensely more complex mechanisms in Gwen's body, but the spot where she had been hit was still clearly visible.

Probably wouldn't hurt to have a look, Gwen thought. She touched a spot on her armour, and ran a finger along it, parting it from her breastbone down to her knee. Having lost the semi-rigid state of combat mode, it flopped easily to the side,  
exposing Gwen's stomach and hip.

"Oh my God!" the woman suddenly wailed, sounding almost hysterical. But to Gwen it didn't look as bad as she thought it might. Just above and in front of her hip was a circle a couple of centimetres across where the flesh had been charred black. The area all around it was purple and swollen. The woman very delicately laid a hand near the burn mark, then pulled it back in alarm. "You're burning up!" she cried. Tears were now streaming down her face. Her formerly calm demeanour was gone,  
she seemed near panic.

"Relax, it's not as bad as it looks," Gwen said reassuringly,  
reaching up and stroking the long, golden hair of the woman she still couldn't bring herself to call Minako. "It will be hot for a few hours while the repairs are being done."

"Repairs?" the woman asked, a little calmer.

"Yes. This hit would probably have killed a human, but I'm made of sterner stuff."

Gwen watched the woman's face take on a stunned expression as that sank in. Then the expression suddenly faded as another part of her seemed to take over. "The man we fought, how quickly will he be healed?"

"I don't think he'll be back for a while. When he ran he was hurt pretty badly, I could tell by the way he was moving. And he must have been completely surprised by your arrival. Just as I was," Gwen said, suddenly smiling and going back to stroking the woman's silky hair.

She returned the smile, but it quickly faded. "Onesama, I'm sorry I disobeyed you. But I was so worried about you, I couldn't just sit and wait."

"Well, Minako-chan, I'm certainly glad that you..."

"Venus."

Gwen raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

The woman looked down and blushed, as if embarrassed by the rude way she had interrupted Gwen. "I'm called Venus. Sailor Venus."

"I see." Gwen moved her hand to the ribbon at Venus' breast,  
experimentally rubbing the dark material between her fingers. It felt more like living matter than fabric. "Well Sailor Venus, as soon as I've set my people to cleaning up this mess, I think that you and I need to have a little talk."

*****

Kenneth Lafarge lay on his bed, his abused body drenched in sweat. He had no bandages over the swollen, blackened burn marks on his side, back and shoulder. The nanomachines at work in his body would prevent any infection, and would eventually reconstruct the skin and the destroyed tissue underneath. For now, all he had to do was lie back in the feverish flush brought on by the waste heat of his trillions of tiny repair machines,  
let them do their work.

Fighting the haze in his head induced by the pain blockers shooting through his veins, Lafarge tried to make sense of what had happened tonight.

He hadn't even seen where that first shot came from. His new enemy hadn't given him a moment to even think about what it was he was facing. All he could do was react. When he got caught in the crossfire of two enemies, when it really started falling apart, all he could do was run.

Only now, with the adrenaline rush of battle and flight subsided, could he take the time to think about the deadly little warrior who had come within inches of killing him. Literally inches, for her beam weapon had far more penetrating power than the Drakon's sidearm, probably more than his own larger plasma gun. If that first shot had been a little higher,  
it probably would have destroyed enough of his heart to disable it, even with its enhanced damage control functions.

And that other weapon she used simply defied understanding. It had come at him like a living thing, twisting like some possessed snake. Before his conscious mind could make any sense of what he was seeing it had wrapped itself around his gun,  
clinging to the supposedly frictionless surface like an antibody clinging to a virus. Pure instinct had prompted him to clamp a tight two-handed grip on his weapon. Even with the help of the artificial muscles in his armoured gloves it had been all he could do just to hang on as he was lifted straight into the air by that glittering chain that seemed no more substantial than the air it had savagely pulled him up into.

The girl herself was an even greater enigma. Biologically very young, certainly no more than sixteen. And even without her extraordinary weapons, the way she moved marked her as something more than human. Was it another Drakon? The readings from the molehole accident on the Draka's homeworld had clearly indicated one body mass. But that girl would have been a small child that long ago, perhaps her mass would not have registered as a separate entity, especially from the distance the Samothracians were taking their readings at. But it made no sense, the Draka were fiercely protective of their children, they would never allow one anywhere near anything as dangerous as an experimental molehole. Perhaps she was a slave soldier, a human enhanced by methods the Drakon had adapted from its own genetic and cyborg technology. But that made even less sense. He had to assume the Snake had access to a complete internal database of Draka technology, but even so there was no way it could have adapted the primitive local tools to do such advanced enhancements on a human. Not in just a few years. Could she have arrived via another molehole? From further in the future? From a different timeline altogether?

Lafarge couldn't help smiling at himself. If he followed that line of inquiry, then he could end up convincing himself of anything he wanted to believe. And he had a funny feeling that the truth would turn out to be much, much stranger than anything his limited imagination could come up with.

In the end, it didn't matter much. He still had his mission,  
there was just one more obstacle in his way now. The Snake had gotten away, but he had managed to damage its toy. By the time its human slaves could patch the thing up, he would be ready to strike again. The Snake would be on the defensive,  
instinctively protecting its lair and its only means of rejoining the pack. It wasn't going anywhere.

But for the moment, neither was he.

*****

Usagi was up very late, trying to concentrate on some much neglected homework. She heard light footsteps approach her bedroom door. There were two gentle taps at the door, and she heard it open. Even before she looked up from her desk, Usagi knew who would be at the door.

"Chibi-usa, what are you doing up at this hour?" Usagi asked softly. Even her parents were asleep. She didn't want to disturb them.

Chibi-usa stood hesitantly in the doorway. She was in her pyjamas and slippers. That extraordinary strawberry blonde hair that always seemed on the verge of turning pink fell loosely about her shoulders, her usual pigtails taken down for the night. "Usagi, can I come in for a second?" she asked very softly.

Usagi nodded, and motioned Chibi-usa to the bed. The little girl quietly closed the door behind her, and they both walked over to sit on Usagi's bed. "What's the matter sweetie,  
couldn't sleep?" Usagi asked gently.

Chibi-usa nodded the affirmative. "I've been thinking about Minako," she said. She looked like she wanted to say something more, but wasn't quite sure what.

Usagi sighed. "Is it because she was mean to you?"

"I guess so. She used to be so nice. Why is she suddenly so mean to everybody?"

"I don't know, sweetie. I don't think she's being mean on purpose. It's like she just doesn't know what she's doing anymore. Mamo-chan said something about her going through a phase, whatever that means. He thinks maybe we just need to leave her alone for a while, let her get over it."

"Doesn't she like us anymore?"

Usagi patted her future daughter's luxuriant hair. "Oh Chibi-usa, you shouldn't even think that. We're her friends,  
I'm sure she loves us just as much as she always has. I'm not sure I really understand either, but right now it's like deep down she's really confused about her feelings."

Chibi-usa's brow knitted, as if she were trying to understand. "Is that why she reads those comics with monsters doing mean things to her?"

*Oh boy.* Usagi had been dreading this. She put on her best smile. "Chibi-usa, I don't think we should really talk about that."

"Why?" Such a simple question, asked so simply.

Why, indeed? "Chibi-usa, do you remember a while ago when you were having trouble understanding geometry and Mamo-chan helped you?"

Chibi-usa nodded hesitantly, obviously confused by the sudden change in subject.

"Did you understand it after he explained it to you?"

"It was hard, but I understand it now."

"If he had tried to explain it to you in exactly the same way when you were five years old, do you think you would have understood it?"

Chibi-usa thought about that. "No. I don't think so."

"You were too young to understand anything that complicated,  
right?"

"Right."

"Well, if I tried to explain why Minako is reading those comics, I don't think you would understand. You're still too young."

"Oh. But you understand, don't you?"

Usagi could feel herself blushing. "It's... sort of complicated, but I think so."

"Do you think there's anything we can do to help her?"  
Chibi-usa asked encouragingly.

"I think we need to just let her know that we still love her,  
that we're still her friends. I know it looks like she's trying to avoid us, but whenever we get the chance I think we should..."

Usagi was interrupted by the phone ringing. "Be right back,"  
she said, already headed for the door. She felt guilty about how grateful she was for this interruption to their little talk.  
She was trying so hard to be a mother for Chibi-usa, but felt so woefully inadequate for the task, now more than ever. For the hundredth time she found herself wondering what had possessed Neo Queen Serenity, her future self, to send Chibi-usa back to this century even after Chibi-usa's original mission had been completed. Just what was Usagi the middle school student supposed to have to offer the girl that Serenity could not offer? She tried to clear those thoughts from her mind as she picked up the phone. "Tsukino residence."

"Usako, It's me."

"Mamo-chan! Boy, it looks like we're all up late tonight!"

"I'm sorry about calling at this hour," Mamoru said. He spoke with the hard, all-business tone he used when there was trouble to deal with. "I was just watching the late news. There's been an accident of some sort at that Rising Wind research centre in Hakone. The one near the villa where Minako is staying."

"Accident?" Usagi breathed, barely remembering to keep her voice low.

"Earlier this evening, just a few hours ago, there was some sort of explosion there. All sorts of people saw it, and everyone in the area heard it. There were pictures from the front gate of the place, that's as far as reporters could get. There was no visible damage, but all sorts of activity. Something's happened there, but nobody seems to know what."

"Oh God..." Usagi whimpered, fighting panic. Minako had said there was some sort of nuclear reactor there!

"Usako, didn't Minako leave you with a special unlisted number you could call the villa with?" Mamoru asked sternly.

"Yes. Yes, she did!"

"Usako, I think you should call her right away. We have no reason to think she was anywhere near that building, so she must be okay. But she must know about the accident. She may be really upset, especially if people she knew were involved. It might help her to hear from you."

"Okay," Usagi said, trying to calm down.

"And call me back when you've heard anything, okay? Don't worry about how late it is."

"Okay." She hung up without even saying goodbye. Her hands shaking, she flipped open the family phone book. I'm sure I put it under Aino, she thought. I know I did, I put it under Aino... yes here it is. She picked up the phone again, hit the wrong button, hung up, and took a couple of deep breaths. Have to calm down. She picked up the phone again, and with her hand shaking just a little less she dialled the number. She must be okay. She's Sailor Venus, she can take care of herself, she has to be okay. But it's a nuclear reactor! Oh God, please, please let her be okay...

"Ingolfsson residence," a businesslike female voice answered.

"Hello, I'm Tsukino Usagi. I'd like to speak with Aino Minako."

"One moment please." Usagi found herself listening to some strange music. The woman's casual tone had surprised her,  
somehow she had expected everyone there to be in a panic. She would be, if a reactor blew up next to her. No, it didn't blow up. Mamo-chan said, no visible damage. It's not Chernobyl. They'll be okay.

The music was cut off. "Hello?" a new voice said.

"Minako-chan! I heard what happened! Mamo-chan told me. He saw it on the news. Are you okay? Were you anywhere near the place? Is it dangerous there?" It all came out in one great gush.

"I'm fine Usagi," Minako answered, taking advantage of Usagi's pause for breath. "I was here in the villa when it happened. It's under control. There's no danger." Her voice was unusually calm, almost expressionless.

"Do you know what happened? Was it that reactor?"

"Usagi, you shouldn't be talking about that on the phone, even to me. But no, it wasn't that, it was something else. Just an accident."

"I'm sorry Minako, I was just so worried. Was anybody hurt?"

"Yes, Gwen was hurt."

"Gwen? Oh my God, will she be okay?"

"Yes. I'm taking care of her." Again, the calm voice that Usagi was finding more and more disturbing. The way Minako doted on Gwen, she would have expected Minako to be hysterical at even the thought of her having an accident. Maybe she was still in shock.

"Minako, I'd like to come over tomorrow if that's okay."

"Why?" Minako asked sincerely, as if not understanding why Usagi would want to do that.

"I just want to see you, that's all."

"I don't think that would be a good idea right now. Everybody here is very busy. Gwen would insist on meeting you, even though she doesn't have the time to spare right now. We aren't in any danger, but there's a lot of cleaning up she and her people have to do."

"Well, maybe you should move back to Tokyo then," Usagi said,  
groping for some excuse to meet her friend.

"No, I'll be staying here. I don't want to quit my studies here, and I'm taking care of Gwen now too. In fact, I should really get back to her now."

"Doesn't she have nurses or something for that?" Usagi asked sharply, her frustration starting to make her angry.

"She prefers to have me take care of her. I'm sorry Usagi, but I really need to go now. If any of the others are worried,  
could you tell them that I'm okay?" She asked it as if it were just a polite afterthought.

"Yes, I will," Usagi said, no longer angry, just bewildered.

"Thanks Usagi. Goodbye." Usagi listened to the dial tone for a few seconds before hanging up the phone. She walked over to the stairs, sank down on them, and buried her head in her hands,  
utterly drained. She heard small, slippered feet descending the steps from the landing above her. Yes, of course Chibi-usa would have been listening.

"Usagi, what's the matter?" Usagi turned to look at Chibi-usa sitting beside her at the bottom of the stairway lit only by dim night lights. Her tone showed that she had figured out something was wrong from whatever she had heard. Usagi told her about the call from Mamoru, and her call to Minako. They sat silently for a while, each lost in their private thoughts. At length, Chibi-usa asked "What are you going to do?"

"Go to Hakone."

"But Minako said not to."

"I won't be telling Minako," Usagi answered simply.

There was a moment's pause. "Can I come too?"

"You are coming. All the Sailor Senshi are. But that can wait for tomorrow. Right now, I have to call back Mamo-chan."

*****

Reclining on the oversized lounge chair in her huge exercise room, Gwen divided her attention between watching Minako go through a complex dance routine and reading the report on the laptop computer in front of her. Neither of these were providing anything interesting, important or surprising enough to distract her from what was really on her mind.

Three days ago, Minako had explained the whole thing.

Long ago, there was a kingdom on the Moon. It was called the Silver Millennium. It prospered under the rule of Queen Serenity. Her daughter, Princess Serenity, fell in love with the prince of an equally ancient and noble kingdom on Earth,  
Prince Endymion. Jealous either of this love or simply of the beauty and prosperity of her neighbours, Queen Beryl of the Dark Kingdom launched an attack on both kingdoms, killing both Prince Endymion and Princess Serenity and laying waste both their homelands. Even the Silver Millennium's most powerful defenders, the Sailor Senshi, fell before the onslaught. At the cost of her life, Queen Serenity unleased the power of the Ginzuishou, sealing Beryl and her demon soldiers away and sending the spirits of her daughter, Endymion and the Senshi to Earth. She sealed away her most trusted servants, two sentient cats, in suspended animation and with the last of her strength sent them to Earth as well. They were recently awakened when Queen Beryl threatened the Earth once again. First Minako, then each of her four friends were confronted by a talking cat who told them who they really were, and what they needed to do. The reincarnated Sailor Senshi, joined by Princess Serenity now reborn as Sailor Moon, confronted and defeated Queen Beryl. Since then they had lost their memories of the events, had them returned, been joined by Usagi's daughter from a thousand years in the future, met four other Sailor Senshi and repelled at least three major threats to the future existence of mankind on the planet.

Any questions?

Gwen wasn't sure how much of this she could believe and still maintain her sanity. She thought she was just getting used to this mad world with its five billion teeming, untamed humans when suddenly she got this dropped on her. At first Gwen thought Minako was relating some sort of legend, or speaking in metaphor. But Minako clearly believed that everything she was telling Gwen was literally true. And by now Gwen had enough practice judging the character of undomesticated humans to be sure that Minako was not delusional.

Gwen could choose to believe as much of Minako's background story as she liked, but there was no denying what she had seen with her own eyes. Even more extraordinary than the powers with which the Sailor Senshi had sent the Samothracian packing was what Gwen had seen afterwards. On that first night, before Gwen's people could arrive to carry their wounded mistress to the villa, Sailor Venus had suddenly begged Gwen to keep her secret. Without waiting for a reply, she had simply stood before Gwen and suddenly she was surrounded by a swirling orange kaleidoscope. Her body became translucent, seeming to flicker in and out of existence. In a flash it was over and Minako was standing over her in the same school uniform Gwen had left her in, little the worse for wear except for some burns and bruises.

Gwen had been more than happy to keep her secret. She had the distinct impression that even the members of her inner circle,  
who accepted Gwen for what she was, would have trouble believing this story.

Minako froze in the final position of her routine just on time for the music to stop. The hidden stereo automatically shut down as it had been programmed. She bent down against the balance bar and stood panting for a while, her nude form drenched in sweat. She grabbed a big, fluffy towel off the beam and began to towel herself dry as she walked over to where Gwen was sitting.

Gwen pushed the laptop aside on its little sliding table. "Well done. You're really getting the hang of it," she said,  
swinging the big armrest aside and sliding over a little to make room.

"I've got a great teacher," Minako wheezed, still out of breath. She sat down beside Gwen. her whole body was still flushed from the exertion.

"I haven't been able to spend much time teaching you lately,  
you've mostly been coming up with your own practice routines. You haven't been neglecting your other studies, have you?"

Minako shook her head. She wrapped the towel around her. Force of habit, Gwen thought. Even when we're alone, she has some degree of modesty. One could hardly blame her, these people were almost as regressive about nudity as the Yankees. "I catalogued that new set of proteins, and I didn't cheat on a single one," Minako assured her.

"Splendid. When you've got some of your wind back, could you go over and get me some more of those pot stickers?"

"More?" Minako asked, regarding the empty plate on the other side of the chair. "Boy, I thought Usagi could put it away, but she's got nothing on you."

"Well, I need about five thousand calories a day for my metabolism, even when I'm bedridden."

This was Minako's cue to bend and examine Gwen's wound. There was just a bit of scar tissue where the burn had been. Most of the swelling was down, but the whole area was still beet red and hot to the touch. Gwen's supercharged repair systems doing overtime. "I can't believe how quickly that's healed," Minako said. "How does it feel?"

"I've got most of the feeling back in my leg, I think the nerves will be completely healed by tomorrow." She should have been exercising her leg even before the healing was done, but something about the idea of hobbling about on a half frozen leg repelled Gwen utterly. However irrational it was, she preferred to let her microscopic friends finish their part of the work first.

"I'm glad. You keep telling me it will all heal properly, but still I couldn't help being worried."

"Minako?"

"Yes?"

"Food."

"Oh, right. Sorry." Minako reached across to take the empty plate, then stood up to go over to the food tray that was keeping the rest of Gwen's dinner warm. She had been eating simple fare these past days, whatever could be prepared and left here for Minako to serve her. She didn't like the idea of her servants or her inner circle seeing her in a crippled state, so she had become rather reclusive. Just short meetings with key staff to plan damage control, both physical and political. They had managed to downplay the accident, but questions were still being asked and they had to be attended to. Luckily, all the casualties had been from among Iwata's men. Their backgrounds had been such that covering up their deaths involved little more than disposing of what was left of their bodies.

Gwen watched as Minako filled another plate for her. In contrast to the incredulity Gwen had felt on hearing the Sailor Senshi's story, Minako didn't seem the least bit put off finding out that her Onesama was a genetically engineered warrior from another dimension. She even seemed to accept that Gwen's actions at the temple had been unintentional, purely the result of a warrior's reflexes. Which was not very far from the truth,  
after all.

Of course, Gwen had glossed over some of the finer points of why she had wanted to contact her people in the first place. All Minako knew was that Gwen's people were locked in a genocidal war with the Samothracians, and that they had sent one of their cyborg warriors to assassinate her. Such was their hatred of Gwen's people that they would not tolerate the Draka's presence in any other timeline.

Which also was not at all far from the truth.

Minako walked over, swung the table in front of Gwen and set the steaming plate in front of her. "Is that Professor Van Kreveld's report on the beacon?" she asked, inclining her head towards the laptop.

Gwen took a bite out of a pot sticker, nodded, swallowed. "It pretty much confirms what I already knew. The beacon won't work. We probably can't make one that does, at least not for a very long time."

"So there's no way you can contact your people, get help from them?"

"Looks that way," Gwen said, swallowing another mouthful.

Minako looked at Gwen, her beautiful blue eyes sad and misty. "I'm so sorry, Onesama. It must be awful for you. After all that time, all that work..."

Gwen reached up, stroked Minako's cheek. "We'll get by somehow. There's only one of him and two of us, after all."

Minako's face suddenly lit up. "Onesama, what if I called my friends, told them about the Samothracian trying to kill you? I'm sure they would help! With all of us here to protect you,  
you'd be safe!"

Gwen remembered the intense fear and aggression response Rei had experienced in her presence. And it sounded like the others were already beginning to believe the shrine maiden's tale, even without knowing who or what Gwen really was. Somehow she couldn't imagine them suddenly coming to her aid.

Gwen patted her cheek. "It's very sweet of you to suggest that, Minako-chan, but I don't think that it will be necessary to involve your friends in this. I've been putting a plan in motion that I think will get rid of the Samothracian for us."

Minako looked worried. "What sort of plan?"

Gwen grinned. "Well, assuming I'm on my feet tomorrow I'll be calling a meeting to set the last pieces in place. You'll be there with the rest of my inner circle, so you'll get to hear all about it."

"Me?" Minako asked, her eyes gone wide.

"Of course. You're one of us now, girl, one of my team. The Samothracian caught us with our pants down the first time, but next time we'll give him an even nicer surprise than what you gave him."

*****

Just fifteen minutes before Kenji's shift was going to end, one of Iwata's thugs walked into the security monitor room.

"Good Evening, sir," Kenji said formally. He had found out very early how Iwata's men expected to be spoken to.

The fat man in the expensive suit just grunted. He was still wearing those stupid Ray-bans. Even in a room lit only by closed circuit monitors.

The fat man surveyed the room as if looking for a speck of dust to complain about. "Something wrong with your monitors, boy?"  
he asked in his big basso voice.

"No sir, just a really thick fog tonight. Rolled in a few minutes ago."

The fat man grunted again, looking over the wall of monitors. All the ones for outside cameras were showing nothing but featureless grey. "Where's your partner?" he asked, still regarding the monitors.

"In the bathroom." Kenji could see where this was leading.

"When he gets back, the two of you do a walk around the building. Visual inspection. I'll watch here."

"Yes sir. Uh, perhaps I should go meet Shin in the hall. Save some time."

The fat man grunted. Taking that as a yes, Kenji took his leave. Not only did he want to get this over with, he wanted to intercept Shin before he said anything stupid to the fat man. Shin had been here longer than him, but sometimes was really stupid about breaking the important rules.

He went straight to the staff lounge where he knew Shin had been for the past hour. The smell of tobacco smoke confirmed this even before he saw Shin lounging with his feet on one of the coffee tables, an open detective novel in his hand.

Shin glanced up, immediately understanding what Kenji's presence here meant. "Oh Hell! Not again!" He threw the book down, stabbed his cigarette into the ashtray and stood up. He made no attempt to straighten out his crumpled uniform.

"Hope you have your flashlight," Kenji said, waving his own for emphasis. "I wouldn't be surprised if they want us to inspect the fence too."

"It's in my locker, I'll pick it up on the way."

"Should have expected this, Shin. Iwata's boys have really been on edge since the accident."

"Tell me about it. Know what I think? It was a hit on Iwata or one of his boys. Nothing to do with the damned research centre."

"Shin, you ought to be careful what you say," Kenji said nervously.

"Oh, give me a break. Everyone knows those guys are all former Yakuza. You think the fat man lost his finger in a fishing accident?"

"I don't think the mob takes fingers these days," Kenji said.

"Exactly my point. Iwata and his boys, they're from the old school. You know, they've been swarming around these past couple of days, but there are a few of them I haven't seen at all. I bet you any money they got taken out of here in boxes and we never see them again." They had reached Shin's locker. He opened up the door he hadn't bothered locking and scooped up his long flashlight.

"They may have just been hurt in the accident," Kenji suggested.

"Why just them? You know of any of us poor peons who was even here that night? I don't. I bet there was a shootout. All those boys are packing heat."

Kenji sighed and shook his head. "You read too much of that stuff," he said, pointing his thumb back to where Shin had left his novel.

"Oh give me a break, everyone knows it."

"Still, you shouldn't say that too loud."

"Oh, they like the fact that we know it. I mean, on the fat man it's just so obvious."

"Gee, and here I thought he just carried a great huge flask in his jacket."

They greeted their fellow guard at the door on their way out the side door. They walked outside and stopped dead, letting the door close behind them. Two paces behind them, it was barely visible.

"Jeez, this is like soup out here," Shin said, shivering. "And when did it get so damned cold?"

"Let's just get this over with," Kenji said. He'd forgotten to set his VCR to record Gilgamesh Night, but if they could hurry up he might make it home on time. They turned to the left and started walking around the back of the building, sticking very close to the wall.

"Visual inspection my foot, we might as well be blind men out here," Shin complained.

"Yeah, I've never seen it like this," Kenji said, walking in the lead. The floodlights just a few meters over their heads did little except turn the fog into a blinding white screen. This was really weird.

"Talked to that old gardener again yesterday," he heard Shin say from behind him. "That gaijin woman hasn't shown her face in a while either. Everyone at the villa is real nervous. You figure maybe she got toasted in the shootout?"

"Accident, Shin."

"Okay, accident. Anyway, he was a little more talkative today.  
Know what else he told me?"

"What, she goes out at night and bays at the moon?"

"Nope, even better. He likes to go out into the woods real late, collect insects or something, see? Well, he's just inside the bush beside the road leading up here when he hears running. He looks up just in time to see her run up the road faster than anything he ever saw, naked as the day she was born."

"Shin, cut me some slack."

"Hey that isn't the worst I've heard. I tell you, that woman is certifiable. And those people who are cozy with her, they all give me the creeps, especially the foreign ones. The way they look at you like they know something you don't, like the rest of us are just meat. I don't know, I figure a couple of those old guys are ex Nazis or something."

"Shin..." A shadow passed in front of the floodlight ahead of them. They both froze, silent. Kenji heard something hit the ground ahead. He thought he heard some rustling of the grass,  
but it faded away or moved away, he couldn't be sure.

"What the hell was that?" Shin whispered.

"Quiet!" Kenji hissed. He continued slowly along the wall. He heard hissing, it seemed to be coming from above. He looked up.  
Starting from a spot a couple of meters over his head, the wall seemed to be bleeding off steam or mist. He thought he could glimpse something like a crystal inside the mist. It was like a line on the wall had been iced over, a line heading straight up and disappearing into the fog. But the ice seemed to be dissolving before his eyes. In a few seconds, it was like it all dissolved into the fog. There was nothing.

Shin whistled. "That was real weird. What do you figure?"

"Maybe they just ran something really cold through one of those big pipes that go all over the walls in there. It was just ice forming on the wall."

"Then what fell down?"

"A piece of ice."

"You kidding me man? You see any ice around here?"

Kenji turned to face him. "Look, the fat man is nervous enough as it is. I'm not saying anything to him and you're not either.  
It's nothing, okay?"

"Hey, don't go biting my head off. I hear you."

"Let's just finish this," Kenji said, and turned to continue walking briskly along the wall. He really wanted to get home. When the shadow of a piece of falling ice starts looking like a girl in a miniskirt, it must be time to pack it in for the night.

By the time they had walked around the building, the fog had completely lifted.

*****

Lafarge finished the diagnostics on the tiny sensor, then placed it back in the hollow of the tree. As expected, nothing wrong with it. Just like the last one. He really was getting paranoid. Taking one last look toward the high fence that was just visible through the bushes, he turned around and crawled back the way he had come.

As he got up and started walking back up the slope, he considered what this meant. If the Snake was getting ready to fire up the beacon again he would expect to start detecting the low power calibration tests that would have to precede a full power test. Especially after the damage it had taken. But still he had detected nothing, so he was out here making sure that the Snake had not found some way to jam his sensors. The far more advanced sensors embedded in his armour were reading just normal activity from within the complex. Maybe it really was taking them this long just to repair the damage, though he would have thought the naturally paranoid Drakon would build very robust redundancy into the machine.

He heard the creaking of the branches just as his passive motion sensors warned him of movement above. His head snapped up and three figures swooped down on him.

They landed all around him. Lafarge was milliseconds from going for his plasma gun. An instant later, his conscious mind registered what had stayed his hand. First, they were making no move to attack. Second, they were children.

In the moonlight filtering through the trees, the two in front of him stood out clearly to the light enhancers in his retinas. Young girls, no more than sixteen. Both dressed in what looked like an odd variation on the school uniforms that seemed to be ubiquitous in this country; the raven-haired one on the left in red, the tall one with the topknot on the right in green.

Somehow, they had jumped from that height without breaking their legs.

He turned around, glanced at the one behind him. This one in blue, her short hair framing sad looking eyes that were covered by a translucent visor. Like the others, she stood at the ready but made no move, regarding him with caution but no hostility.

He realized why he was subconsciously avoiding making any hostile moves. All of them were dressed similarly to the Drakon's mysterious ally. The beating he had taken at her hands was still fresh in his mind.

"It looks like we're not the only ones interested in what Ingolfsson is up to here," the tall one said.

"Who are you?" Lafarge asked. He wasn't sure if he should be surrendering to them or scolding them for being out so late.

"Sailor Jupiter."

"Sailor Mars."

"Sailor Mercury."

Lafarge blinked. Huh?

"I'd like to know what you're doing sneaking around up here,"  
the one who called herself Sailor Mars said.

This was getting more surreal by the moment. Despite the proximity of the Snake's nest Lafarge risked switching on his active sensors. They weren't telling him much. The girls' flamboyant outfits were reflecting or absorbing just about everything he threw at them, all up and down the spectrum. There was some unusual electromagnetic activity around the tiaras they all wore on their brows. Other than that, it looked like he was facing three young girls who just happened to have night vision and enhanced skeletal and muscle strength that might very well match his own.

"What makes you think I'm sneaking around?," Lafarge asked. His armour was morphed to appear as just jacket and slacks. Even if these were more of the Drakon's allies they had seen nothing to identify him as anything but a lost tourist. Perhaps he could bluff his way out, or at least buy enough time to try to figure out what the Hell was going on.

The tall one laughed. There was perhaps a hint if mockery, but mostly just amusement. "Mercury, I think he needs some convincing."

Lafarge tensed. He turned around to face the one who had called herself Sailor Mercury. She seemed to be dividing her attention between him and some lights that were flashing across her visor. In a calm, emotionless voice, she began to speak. "You came across the ridge behind us an hour ago, headed straight for the Rising Wind complex, then crawled to within a few meters of the fence. After a minute, you backed away from the fence, walked a hundred meters along it to the left, then crawled closer to it again. You then headed back up the ridge. Your clothing is actually a very dense carbon matrix, very complex, probably body armour that can change shape. Your skeleton has been artificially reinforced. There are active sensors all through your armour, radiating at many frequencies. Also ultrasound sensors. Embedded in the left half of your jacket is a gun with a very high density power source."

"Get the picture?" Lafarge turned back to face Jupiter, who was now grinning at him. The hidden meaning was not hard to grasp. *We could have taken you down any time we wanted to.*

Lafarge found himself believing it. Had they been working for the Drakon, he would be dead now. This whole situation still seemed so unreal. He would just have to work with it. "I'm Kenneth Lafarge. I'm monitoring the activities of Gwendolyn Ingolfsson and Rising Wind," he said, addressing himself to the raven-haired one's original question.

"Why?" Sailor Mars asked.

As yet, Lafarge had not revealed his identity to anybody on this world. In America, he had found neither hide nor hair of the Drakon so had no opportunity to recruit local help in defeating it. Now, just recently arrived in a country he was only now becoming familiar with, there had been no time to recruit allies among the locals as the Drakon had.

What made up Lafarge's mind was that he simply wanted to see how these mysterious night stalkers would react to having a bit of this unreality thrown back in their faces.

"Gwendolyn Ingolfsson is not what she seems. She is a genetically enhanced warrior from another dimension, from far in the future of a different timeline. She is trying to build a device to contact her people with, so that they can come across from their timeline and invade this world. I was sent from that same dimension to prevent her from doing that by any means necessary."

Sailor Mars' young face showed no hint of amusement or incredulity, and only some degree of surprise. A quick glance at the one called Sailor Jupiter showed that she had much the same reaction. The two girls looked at each other and nodded,  
as if the bombshell he had dropped had simply confirmed their suspicions. They both relaxed and lowered their guard just a little. He could hear the one behind him move to join her two companions in front of him.

"I think we need to hear more about this, Lafarge-san," Sailor Mars said.

Lafarge stood looking at her. He wondered whether they were assuming that he was an escaped lunatic. "Didn't you hear what I said?" he asked.

"Yes, and I believe you," Sailor Mars said in all sincerity.

"What, just like that?" Lafarge had been taken off guard by their reaction, he was still wondering if he was being toyed with.

The one called Sailor Mercury came up beside her raven-haired companion. Her visor was now nowhere to be seen. "We have been monitoring this place as well," she said. "We have found things that clearly indicate they are using technology that was not developed on this world. As you are."

"We'll have to hear more before we can decide how much of your story to believe," Sailor Jupiter warned him sternly.

The three young girls stood calmly before him as if waiting for him to present his case. It was as if they had gone through all this before, and these invaders from another world were just another case to solve. The tall one in particular seemed to be treating him as just another miscreant who had showed up on her shift. Lafarge found himself becoming more than a little irritated at getting such treatment from somebody who looked many years his junior. "Jupiter-san, I have told you who I am and why I am here, perhaps before I say more you could do me the same courtesy."

Sailor Jupiter inclined her head slightly. "You're right, I'm sorry. We are called the Sailor Senshi. We are from a kingdom that was destroyed a very long time ago. Currently we live in Tokyo. Our job is to protect people from threats that come from... well, from unusual places, I guess you'd say. It sounds like Ingolfsson qualifies."

She gave him a little smile. "By the way, Jupiter is more a title than a name, you can drop the honorific."

Lafarge decided that this was about as much as he wanted to hear for now. His head was already spinning.

"My story is a long one, perhaps we should move to a safer distance," he suggested.

"There's a place just over the ridge," Sailor Mars said. "I think it would be ideal."

*****

From their vantage point high in a tree, Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi-moon watched their three companions and the man they had been talking with walk away together. When they were out of sight, Sailor Moon jumped down to a lower branch and then to the ground, silently congratulating herself for not stumbling. Sailor Chibi-moon followed closely behind. "What do we do now?"  
she asked the older girl.

"Just as we planned. We follow, stay far enough not to be seen or heard but close enough to give assistance if need be. We keep homing in and listening in through the communicators, and see what this man has to say." Actually, Sailor Moon was more or less reciting the plan that Jupiter had suggested.

"Why didn't we just go with them?" Chibi-moon asked.

"Because I don't want to reveal ourselves to this Lafarge-san until we know more about him." Sailor Moon didn't much like doing it this way, but Jupiter had persuaded her it was the least risky way of making contact with this mysterious intruder they had detected.

Chibi-moon thought about this for a moment. Her face suddenly brightened. "Tactical reserve!" she chimed, raising a finger straight up over her head for emphasis.

Sailor Moon smiled down at her. "I see you've been having some more talks with Luna. Shall we go?" They started walking up the slope. Mercury had set her computer to send out signals that would give their communications wristbands an approximate range and bearing. Sailor Moon glanced occasionally at her wristband, adjusting their pace to follow at a safe distance.

"Sailor Moon, what if he's telling the truth?" Chibi-moon abruptly asked.

Sailor Moon frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean about Minako's friend. If we tell Minako, will she believe us?"

Sailor Moon had been trying not to think about that. "Well, if Lafarge can prove what he said, then we'll have to tell Minako. She'll have to believe us whether she likes it or not."

Chibi-moon was silent for a few moments. "I think she'll be really sad."

"Yes sweetie, I think she will." Sailor Moon was actually hoping that Minako's reaction would be no worse than that. But somehow she doubted it would be that simple.

Sailor Chibi-moon let out a yelp of surprise as her foot caught under the dried out root of a dead tree. Sailor Moon caught her before she fell to the ground. "Be careful, Chibi-moon. As a Sailor Senshi you can see a lot better by moonlight than you normally could, but the dark can still play tricks on your eyes.  
You have to really pay attention."

"Okay. Sorry." They continued to pick their way up the slope.  
"I wish Tuxedo Kamen were here too," Chibi-moon said.

"Don't worry, he'll be here if we need his help. We can always count on that."

"Strategic reserve!" Chibi-moon chimed.

Sailor Moon patted her on the head. "Good girl."

*****

Lafarge had noticed this small shrine on previous nights that he had been walking through these woods. It was an old place in a small clearing accessible only by foot paths. Leading them to it, Sailor Mars walked up the few creaky wooden steps to the covered veranda that surrounded the small wooden building. She stopped there, put her hands together in front of her and bowed.  
Lafarge watched with interest. Whoever these Sailor Senshi were, they seemed to pay some respect to the local religion. Mars walked to the double doors and pushed them open. Their ancient hinges protested loudly. Suddenly there was light, as if Mars had flicked a lighter. She turned around, and Lafarge could see a small flame that seemed to emerge from her extended finger. It had no source that he could see, and she certainly did not appear to be burning.

"Follow me," she said, turning back to walk into the dark building. Her two companions walked in, with Lafarge close behind. By Mars' strange flickering light he could see that the building was just one very plain room with an altar of some sort at the far end. It smelled as old as it looked. Mars approached the altar, bowed again, and pointed to a bronze pot full of sand. There were black sticks in the sand that Lafarge took to be burned-out incense. Suddenly the little flame leapt from her outstretched finger and seemed to hover over the brazier. It became steadier and turned whiter, bathing the room in a dim golden light. Mars turned around. "We can be seated now," she said.

Lafarge regarded the flame behind her that hovered in mid-air with no apparent source of fuel. "How do you do that?" he asked, genuinely curious.

"This is a place of power, I can tap into it," she said simply.

In the meantime Sailor Jupiter had closed the doors. The three young girls sat on the wooden floor in a semicircle, and looked up at him expectantly. Lafarge joined them, completing the circle with Jupiter across from him and Mars and Mercury to his left and right. Sitting here in better light, they all looked even younger than he had thought. He was having trouble regarding them as anything but children. He had to keep reminding himself that they were all very likely just as capable and just as deadly as the girl he had fought in the beacon complex.

The girl who he now thought of as a fourth Sailor Senshi, a rather delicate issue that Lafarge was not looking forward to raising.

Without a word, he pulled something from a jacket pocket that looked like a black handkerchief. He unfolded it and laid it out flat on the floor in front of him. He touched a corner of it, and it suddenly went rigid. Lights appeared on top of it,  
and the holographic projector formed a picture of the planet Earth in front of them. The light was at about the optimum level for this kind of projector, so it was a very clear translucent image.

The girls looked at it in silence. Mercury brought a hand up to her earring, and suddenly the blue visor he had seen earlier materialized out of nowhere, a translucent band that covered her eyes. She noticed his surprise. "I see better with this," she said, giving no further explanation.

Lafarge suppressed a smile. *Yes, I'll just bet you do.*

"Well, I guess we should start with some history," he said.

Lafarge had long since prepared this presentation for the day when he would have to explain his story to somebody. He started off showing how the history of his timeline started diverging from this one in the eighteenth century. The globe would zoom in on various parts of the world and show shifting political boundaries as appropriate. As they moved into the nineteenth century the maps were accented by various monochrome pictures chronicling the rise of the Domination. Pictures of serfs labouring under the steely, watchful eyes of their harsh masters, of African slaves in their thousands busy building the cities and factories that the Draka would carve out their empire with. Moving films of gradually improving clarity chronicled their conquest through the twentieth century, from grainy pictures of the vast zeppelin bombing fleets that helped them in their first conquests beyond Africa to startlingly realistic images of the slave soldiers in their power armour who helped the Draka sweep through Eurasia.

Then came the pictures of the Final War in 1999. Fusion bombs and asteroids rained down on the planet, nearly destroying it. More horrible still were the pictures of soldiers of the Alliance, the sworn enemies of the Draka, faces twisted by some unspeakable madness, foaming at the mouth as they killed each other by whatever means was handy. They were victims of the trump card that had won the war for the Draka: they had used the biological sciences at which they excelled to make a virus that attacked their enemies' brains, making them turn on each other.

The Alliance was saved from utter defeat by their own trump card: a starship built in secret. A bolthole by which the few thousands of survivors escaped. They travelled to a planet of Alpha Centauri, there to found the United States of Samothracia.

Four hundred years of spying and skirmishing gave the Samothracians some idea of what the Draka were doing with their mastery of the solar system. They engineered themselves into an immortal master race, and with that same science turned all remaining humans into Homo Servus, a race born and bred to serve the Draka. The Final Society, as the Domination was now called,  
was no longer held together by force or intimidation, but by hormones, by chemicals. The manacles had become gilded cages of the mind.

Then came the molehole experiments with which both sides strove to break the lightspeed barrier. A successful molehole would be a decisive weapon that could break the stalemate that had kept them at arm's length for centuries. But the moleholes were producing an entirely different effect: they were acting as gateways to parallel universes. When the Samothracians had detected the accident that sent a single Drakon to this world,  
they dispatched a cyborg warrior to assassinate it. No universe deserved to have even a single one of those monsters wandering around.

The Samothracians had to be very cautious about drawing the Draka's attention, so they could only send across one very small ship from a long distance. Lafarge showed them a picture of the tiny egg-shaped capsule that had been sent here by molehole and in which he had drifted to this Earth and landed in America. He then switched off the hologram projector, which once again became pliable like fabric.

"I spent six years searching for the Drakon in America,"  
Lafarge said in conclusion. "Then I heard of the activities of Rising Wind. My sensors have confirmed what I suspected: they are building a beacon that will allow the Draka in my timeline to home in on this timeline and open a molehole. I don't know why they're building it here, but it looks like it is close to completion. If they can even bring across a few fully equipped slave soldiers and Draka officers, it would be all over. I would be no match for them, neither would all the armies of this world. Neither would you, I suspect. I have to prevent that at all cost."

He looked at his three listeners. They had all been sitting silently in rapt attention. As he expected, they had shown some shock at the more graphic pictures of the many Draka atrocities committed during their wars of conquest. As Lafarge picked up his projector and folded it, Jupiter regarded him with what looked liked newfound respect. Mars appeared to be lost in her own troubled thoughts. Mercury's expression was hard to read.

Mercury touched her earring and her visor disappeared, which once again drew Lafarge's attention. "Lafarge-san, I saw signs of explosions inside the research complex. You've attacked it once already, haven't you?" she asked abruptly.

Lafarge found it hard to believe the girl had actually sneaked in to the complex, but decided to let it pass for now. He put away his projector and nodded. "Yes, I did. The accident that was in the news a few days ago was actually a failed attempt to bring the beacon to full power. I had to at least disable it before they tried again. I succeeded in doing that, and I nearly killed the Drakon as well. But I was taken by surprise and driven off by another warrior. A young blonde girl dressed much as you are who used a powerful beam weapon."

The reaction of all three was instantaneous and identical. Shock and recognition, then sudden reemergence of their earlier suspicion of him. So she was a friend or ally of theirs. He would have to play this very, very carefully.

"I take it you know this person. I don't ask you to confirm or deny, but if she really is a friend of yours then you have to understand that she may be under the Drakon's control. The pheromones by which they control their slave race can also be made to work on humans. And the Drakon will have other means of manipulating the people around it, domination comes to it as naturally as breathing. It will have an inner circle of people who know who and what it really is, this girl may now be part of that inner circle."

"I don't believe it," Jupiter said flatly. "Okay, yes, she is a friend of ours. She's called Sailor Venus. But if she knew what Ingolfsson really is, there's no way she would help her. She must have had some other reason for attacking you."

Lafarge balked at doing this. They looked so young. But he had to make them understand what they were facing. "The Draka have many ways of securing loyalty. The men and women who make up its inner circle... forgive me, but I must be blunt... most or all of them will be acting as the Drakon's concubines."

Jupiter looked ready to hit him, barely containing her outrage.  
She fixed him with a look that would melt steel. "My friend would never..."

"It's true," Mercury suddenly interrupted. Everyone looked at her. Her face betrayed no emotion, but she was fidgeting,  
involuntarily wringing her hands. "She and Ingolfsson are lovers. That's the hold the Drakon has on her."

Jupiter shook her head. "Mercury, even if she told you that,  
it doesn't mean..."

"She didn't need to tell me," Mercury interrupted again, still upset but keeping it under control. "It's obvious from the changes I've seen in her. Especially when we sleep together. I can explain that further, or we can just leave it at that."

That took a second to sink in. Mercury's two companion looked even more shocked than Lafarge was. They simply stared at her,  
struck dumb. It looked like Mercury had made Lafarge's point for him. He hated himself for making her do this. Silently, he chalked up another one. Another outrage that he would make the Drakon pay for with interest.

"Lafarge-san," Mars said hesitantly, breaking the silence. "You were wondering why the beacon was being built here. Do you think there's any possibility that the Drakon appeared here instead of in America?"

"I don't see how," Lafarge said, as grateful as the others no doubt were for the change in subject. "She disappeared in Manhattan Island in our timeline. According to everything we understand about moleholes, she would have to appear in the same place. Unless some process that we don't understand pulled the molehole over here."

Mars nodded. "I'd like to tell you about what happened here seven years ago." She told Lafarge a story of an ancient order of mystics, of arcane magical powers used to hold back the forces of evil. Lafarge felt as if he was being told a fairy tale. But her description of the molehole and the black-clad berserker that emerged from it were all too real.

Lafarge shook his head in wonder. "It's beyond belief. What your sensei did... assuming it is even possible, it would have to require power levels a thousand times higher than what even that beacon could produce. What was she?"

"She was a Fire Oracle," Mars said simply, as if that explained everything. The pained expression that had shown occasionally while she told her tale was back. She cast her eyes down. "She was my dear friend, my onesama."

Lafarge had been so wrapped up in this startling revelation, he hadn't noticed Mars' distress. He felt ashamed by his insensitivity. He bowed, hoping he was doing it right. "My sympathy for your loss."

"Thank you." Mars had recovered her composure quickly. She turned to her two companions. "I think it's time to bring the others here."

Lafarge frowned. "Others?"

Jupiter glared at Mars. She didn't look too happy. "That wasn't your decision to make, but I guess it can't be helped now." She touched what Lafarge had taken to be a wristwatch and its face flipped up. She spoke into it. "I suppose you've been listening?"

A tinny voice issued from the device. "Yes, we heard. We'll be there shortly."

Jupiter snapped the communicator shut again and looked at Lafarge. "I apologize for the deception, but there are two more of us who have been listening in. The one I was talking with is our leader, Sailor Moon. They'll be joining us in a few minutes."

Lafarge had been unable to guess which of these three led the group. Now he knew why. "Are there any other Sailor Senshi I should know about?" he asked with just a hint of irony.

"Well, since you ask, Sailor Chibi-moon will be here shortly,  
Sailors Uranus and Neptune are in parts unknown, Sailor Saturn is probably dead and nobody is sure what's become of Sailor Pluto."

It took Lafarge a moment to decide that he wasn't being toyed with. "And you all came from this... ancient kingdom?" Lafarge thought they might be less talkative in the presence of their leader, he wanted to take advantage of this time to collect intelligence.

Jupiter sighed. She turned to her raven-haired companion. "Mars, you'd probably be better at explaining this than I would."

Sailor Mars nodded, then faced Lafarge. "We can't tell you much simply because our own memories are incomplete. It was only recently that we awakened to our special abilities. Through visions, we became aware that we are reincarnations of warriors that lived in an ancient kingdom on the Moon called the Silver Millennium. How it came to be, how such a thing could even be possible, and how we ended up in this age, we don't really know. But since awakening to our powers we have faced enemies from other times and other worlds. We have seen things that are beyond the understanding of science or religion or philosophy. We have simply tried to be guardians against those forces as best we can. For better or worse, that seems to be our role."

She hesitated for a moment, then fixed him with a look of sympathy or apology. "I could describe some of the things we have seen and done, but I'm not sure how much it would mean to you, we barely understand much of it ourselves. I'm sorry, but there's probably not much more I can tell."

As if on cue, Mercury said, "Our friends are here." Her visor was back. Lafarge would have given much to know exactly what she could see with it.

Moments later the steps outside creaked under two sets of feet which then approached the door. The Sailor Senshi all stood up,  
and Lafarge followed suit, wondering at this. Showing deference to their leader, or just being cautious?

The doors came open, and the girl who had pushed them open walked into the room. She waved at her companions. "Hi everyone, sorry to keep you waiting," she said cheerfully. She met Lafarge's eyes, smiled at him. "I'm Sailor Moon, pleased to meet you. I'm sorry for listening in like that, I know it was very rude. I hope you won't hold it against us." She was very sincerely apologetic.

"Uh... no, not at all. It was a sensible precaution," Lafarge said, trying to recover from his shock. He had been expecting their leader to be at least a little older than the girls he had been talking to. But this bubbling teenager with her hair in those odango and incredibly long golden pigtails looked like the youngest of the bunch.

That is, youngest except for the one who had entered the room behind her. Seeing that she had his attention, the little girl in the pink and white Sailor Senshi uniform stepped forward and executed a crisp, low bow that set her luxuriant strawberry blonde pigtails bouncing. Very cheerfully but politely, she said "I am Sailor Chibi-moon, Sailor Senshi in training, I'm pleased to meet you. I am very young and inexperienced, but I hope we can work well together."

"Likewise," Lafarge said, simply making the minimum reply required for politeness while he considered this new wonder. The girl could not be any older than ten, he thought. Could she really have powers similar to what he saw Sailor Venus use? Did these Senshi really intend to take this little girl into combat?

He directed his attention back to Sailor Moon, whose expression had sobered somewhat, though her manner was still pleasant and casual. "Lafarge-san, it looks like we have the same goals as you. We want to protect this world from the Draka and we want to save the people she has under her control. I think we should work together."

Well, she gets right to the point, Lafarge thought. "I agree. There are a lot more things I need to tell you about the Drakon and the sort of defenses it has probably set up around its nest."

"We may be able to help there, too," Sailor Moon said, glancing at Sailor Mercury. "Mercury, did you get a good map of the place?"

Mercury nodded. "Yes, and lots of odd readings, too. Maybe they'll mean more to Lafarge-san than they did to me. Excuse me..." she reached behind her, and suddenly there was a little palmtop computer in her hand. The move had looked like some magician's trick. She unfolded it and started tapping at the keys.

Lafarge just stared. *Where the Hell did she....? No, I probably don't want to know.*

Mercury walked over to Lafarge and held out the little device to him. "I'll have to explain what the different colours and indicators mean as we go, but this is an overall view of the main building."

Lafarge took the computer and looked at it. The screen was small, but its detail was remarkable. It was a 3-D transparent view of the building seen at an angle. Even at this overall level it was showing structural elements, electrical wiring,  
conduits and things he took to be some sort of computer network.  
The latter was blinking for emphasis. He looked at its overall topology, and suddenly realized why it looked familiar. It showed characteristic signs of Draka design principles.

Somehow, Sailor Mercury's sensors had found what his could not:  
the Drakon's inner computer network.

He looked at the slender young girl with wonder. "Mercury.  
we definitely need to talk."

*****

As the meeting began, Minako became more aware of how her conversational English skills had deteriorated since her return from England last year. This, and the fact that her slight form was lost in the big, plush swivel chair simply worsened her feeling of intimidation.

She knew the dozen people at the table by name and by sight. Gwen had shown her multimedia dossiers on every member of the inner circle, had made her memorize their names, faces and voices. She had sternly emphasized how important it was for Minako to be sure of who was part of that inner circle;  
obviously, there were things she could discuss with them that she could not discuss with anybody else. Yesterday had been the simple ceremony where she was introduced as the newest member. Everyone had been very polite, but only a couple had been what she would call friendly, mostly ones like Van Kreveld whom she had already met before.

The dark, richly appointed meeting room was in a wing of the house that had until now been closed to her. With its great U-shaped wooden table and with the various pieces of traditional Japanese artwork lining the walls, it reminded Minako of the meeting rooms of Yakuza dons, at least the ones she had seen on television dramas. The only concession to modernity was the computer terminals discreetly embedded in the table before each chair.

Just as Gwen had warned her it would be, the meeting was very formal. People were arranged at the table by seniority, with Iwata and Van Kreveld seated closest to Gwen. Nobody spoke unless addressed by Gwen or by somebody she had explicitly given permission to speak.

Not that Minako had any intention of saying a word anyway. It was all she could do just to follow what was going on.

They were discussing the preparations that had been made to deal with the Samothracian. Now that the reactor was of no use as a beacon, they would be using it as bait to lure him in. Today, enough of the beacon machinery would be back online to start up the reactor again. They would bring it up to high enough levels to make it look like they were doing calibration tests. They would then immediately set up the reactor so that it could be set to overload in a matter of minutes by a single command from Gwen. Assuming the Samothracian took the bait and attacked, Iwata's men in the beacon complex would keep him busy long enough for the reactor to overload.

Minako thought she must have been missing something, since she couldn't see how Iwata's men could get to safety before the reactor exploded. But she had no intention of asking any stupid questions. She still thought that blowing up the reactor would be unnecessary if the other Sailor Senshi were here to deal with the Samothracian. Even if she wanted to, needless to say she could not mention that. Even Gwen had agreed that Minako's real identity must remain a secret. She was being passed off as Gwen's personal assistant, and as a bodyguard in training for the rest of the group.

There were other matters that Minako was sort of able to follow. They talked about the ramifications of such a seemingly major catastrophe to the reputation of Rising Wind. Supposedly they would minimize this by playing up the possibility of terrorist involvement. They could leverage recent paranoia over activities of various religious cults in Japan. Also, they would be expanding overseas activities under shadow companies,  
so Rising Wind itself would be of less importance. Minako was bothered by suggestions that Gwen would be spending a lot less time in Japan now. What if she asks me to go abroad with her,  
Minako wondered.

Satisfied that things were going well, Gwen dissolved the meeting. She left by the same private entrance she had entered,  
and the rest of the group moved into an adjacent parlour. Minako followed them. Gwen had told her that the group would usually relax here after a meeting, and that she should join them there, get to know them better. The tension in the room had lifted like a fog as soon as Gwen had left. As they moved into the parlour, people were already speaking casually in groups of twos and threes. The room was a complete contrast to the one they vacated, coffee tables and plush lounging chairs arranged around it at random, brightened by an entire wall that opened onto an enclosed garden. Uniformed servants were already there, solemnly waiting with food and drinks at the ready.

Minako got herself a soda and was relieved to see Yohko approaching her. They had met only a couple of times, and Minako couldn't exactly say that she liked the severe young woman. But it was somebody she at least knew a little, and now Minako wouldn't have to decide who to go sit with.

Yohko gave her best approximation of a friendly smile. "You've really managed to drop into our little group during interesting times," she said in Japanese.

Minako was grateful to be able to revert to her native language. "I'll say. It's really scary, what we're planning to do."

"Oh, you'll find we do a lot of scary things here. But considering what you did you're a brave young girl, I'm sure you'll soon get used to it."

The story Gwen and Minako had improvised was that Gwen had driven off the Samothracian by herself and Minako had found her and helped her limp into the meeting room where everybody else had found them. Minako suspected that this story was the major reason somebody as young as her was being so readily accepted by the group. "Oh, I wasn't really brave," Minako said, trying to play it down. "I was terrified, I just really wanted to help onesama. Uh, I mean, our Mistress." Minako cursed herself. Unless they were in private, she was always supposed to refer to Gwen by the proper term of respect.

Yohko raised an eyebrow at Minako's slip of the tongue. "You know, you're very lucky, our Mistress really seems to have taken a liking to you. I mean, I've done my share of concubine duty for her too, but I always get the impression that it's just a Drakon mammalian thing for her. Not that I'm complaining."

Minako nearly dropped her glass. "What?" she asked in a low voice.

Yohko just seemed mildly amused by Minako's shock. "Oh, she's had us all at one point or another, some of us more often than others, naturally. Less often since you've showed up, I think."  
She leaned forward, and continued in a low, conspiratorial voice. "You know, I think she's even had old man Van Kreveld once or twice. Must have been the thrill of his lifetime. You want to watch your ass around him, Minako-chan, he's really a dirty old man. Even hit on me once."

The wave of nausea passed. Minako had been afraid that she was going to throw up. "I'll... keep that in mind," she managed to say.

"Well, if he gets out of line, just tell our Mistress, she'll set him straight. Anyway, shall we go sit down?"

"Um... actually I need to find a washroom," Minako said apologetically.

Yohko pointed to where the room opened into a hallway. "Through there. See you later." She turned around and walked to join one of the groups who had sat down.

Minako tried not to hurry as she headed out the room. She even had the presence of mind to leave her half finished drink on one of the trays on the way out. She felt a flush coming to her cheeks, knew it must be conspicuous by now. She couldn't remember ever feeling this humiliated. At least she hadn't started crying. Thankfully, she was too angry for that. Angry mostly at Yohko, but... no, this wasn't Gwen's fault. Minako tried to tell herself that this was just the way things were done on Gwen's world. Gwen just hadn't explained, that's all. It wasn't her fault.

Minako found she had walked some distance down the hallway. She knew she should go back, but she was still too upset. She needed at least a few minutes alone to calm herself. She still wasn't very familiar with this wing of the house. It was supposed to be living, working and recreation space for the inner circle. Minako was in front of a set of wooden double doors that looked too big to lead into a private suite. Hoping it was another parlour or something, she quietly pushed one of the doors open and peered inside.

It looked like the biggest private nursery she had ever seen. The walls were all covered with big pictures of cartoon characters, everything from Doraemon and Anpanman to Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny. There was something she took to be a big,  
elaborate crib, neatly made but currently empty. The carpet and furniture were all in bright primary colours, like one would expect to see in a kindergarten. There was a collection of stuffed toys laying all over that dwarfed Minako's own collection, including a stuffed Hello Kitty taller than she was.

There was a young woman seated in an easy chair near the crib. She looked up from her knitting and smiled at Minako. She recognized the face, though it seemed a bit chubbier than the picture she had seen. She fought to remember the name. Reiko something.

"I'm terribly sorry..." Minako began.

"Not at all, come right in," Reiko said in a light, cheerful voice. She put her knitting on a nearby table and rather awkwardly took her feet down from the davenport they had been resting on. Minako could now more clearly see why she was moving a bit slowly. She was in the advanced stage of pregnancy.

"Oh, please don't get up!" Minako said, walking in and motioning Reiko to stay in her seat. "I'm really sorry, I didn't even know you were here."

"That's quite all right," Reiko said. She had been about to get up, but dutifully stayed in her seat as she had been asked. "You must be Aino Minako, the brave young girl everybody is talking about."

"Yes, I'm Minako. Pleased to meet you. You must be Reiko-san."

"Nagashima Reiko, and please just call me Reiko. Won't you sit down?" She motioned to another easy chair near hers.

"I really didn't mean to intrude," Minako said, truly embarrassed at having just barged in like this.

"Not at all, I'd been hoping to meet the latest member of our little family. Can you sit and talk a while?"

"Yes, of course. Thank you." Minako sat down. She already thought that Reiko was by far the nicest member of Gwen's inner circle that she had met. She was very bright and cheerful, but she had this distant look as if she wasn't quite all here. Her eyes almost look glazed, and that beatific smile never left her lips. She spoke rather slowly too. Minako wondered if she were taking drugs for pain or something.

"I'm sorry I missed your initiation ceremony, but I was having an ultrasound. My little girl is getting bigger every day." She laid a hand lightly on her protruding belly, and her face seemed to glow with joy.

Minako smiled warmly. "Is she your first?"

"Yes, she is."

"You must be very excited."

"Oh, we all are. Our Mistress has been here almost every day in the past month. Yesterday, she felt the baby kick again. She really likes that, you know."

Minako had the disquieting feeling that she was missing something here. "If you don't mind my asking, is our Mistress going to be the girl's godmother?"

Though she politely tried to hide it, Reiko looked a little puzzled by the question. Then her smile broadened. "Oh my, I guess she hasn't gotten around to telling you yet. I suppose it's not surprising, you only just came into our family a day ago. Well, I'm sure she wouldn't mind my telling you myself. I'm bearing our Mistress' clone."

Minako forgot herself, made no attempt to hide her shock and revulsion. "Oh my God, are you serious?" she breathed from behind the hand she had involuntarily covered her mouth with.

Reiko did not look the least put off by Minako's reaction. She just smiled sympathetically. "I know it's hard to believe, but last year we were finally able to do it. I was a little shocked too, when Gwen told me I was going to be her brooder. The Draka never give birth to their own children, you see. They pick one of their servants, the Homo Servus they have on their world, to be a brooder. Our Mistress told me all about it. It's considered a great honour among her people. I'll be like a godmother to the little girl. And she's going to grow up very quickly. Not just physically either. Our Mistress told me there are already... oh, what did she call them? Implants. Implants growing in her little head. They'll teach her things. By the time she grows up, she'll know all the things our Mistress knew when she grew up. She will be just like our Mistress was four hundred years ago."

Minako shook her head, utterly shocked and bewildered. "But why? Why a clone?"

"To help our Mistress carry on her work. Now that the beacon won't work, we can't get any help from our Mistress' world. We'll have to do it all ourselves. It will take so many years that by the time my little girl is grown up there will still be plenty to do. And the more there are, the faster it will be. You know, if you're lucky, in a couple of years our Mistress might ask you to become a brooder as well. Wouldn't that be exciting? I wouldn't know of course, but our Mistress says the baby does things to your body that make it much easier than a human pregnancy. In fact, it just feels like the most wonderful thing in the world."

Minako tried to ignore the bile that threatened to come up her throat. With great effort, she got her breathing under control.  
"Reiko... forgive me, I guess I'm just a little confused. What work are these clo... these children supposed to do?"

Reiko's tone had not changed at all. She might as well have been discussing the weather. "Even when they are very young they can help our Mistress pacify the planet. Eventually, they will help her rule it. Then it will look just like the Earth our Mistress came from. She's told me so much about it. She even has these wonderful moving pictures, you must ask her to show them to you some time. There is no war, no crime, no poverty, no pollution, no problems of any kind. Everybody there is so happy! Even the poorest of the servants want for nothing.  
And the Draka watch over them, protect them. Just like our Mistress protects us. She's told me that our own Earth really can be like that someday!"

Minako surprised herself by actually being able to think coherently. "Reiko, our Mistress hasn't really told me much about her own world yet. If you don't mind, could I ask you to tell me more?"

Reiko held that same beatific smile. "Why yes, I'd be happy to."

*****

Usagi leaned on the balcony outside her room, watching the sunset. She had just woken up from a long nap. However hard it was, she had to try to sleep some time. There had been few enough opportunities for that these past couple of days.

On the night that they met Lafarge, Mars and Jupiter had been ready to storm the villa right then and there and pull Minako out by force if need be. But Lafarge had insisted that he needed at least a day to more fully study the readings that Mercury had shown him. The two of them had figured out some way to transfer data between their computers. Lafarge had emphasized the need to destroy the Drakon's inner computer network quickly, before she or her automated systems could launch the doomsday weapons he seemed convinced that she had developed. Sailor Moon had decided to give him the extra time. Reluctantly, the others had agreed.

The decision Usagi was really agonizing over was whether to try and contact Minako again. Lafarge had advised against it. First, the phone lines and every part of the villa would almost certainly be bugged and monitored. Second, Venus had probably already told the Drakon about the other Sailor Senshi, she would be looking out for them. Third, it was unlikely that Venus could be persuaded to act against the Drakon, at least not right away. Usagi was ready to ignore this advice, to call her friend, try to make her understand. Minako was her dearest friend, a sister in all but birth, surely she would listen.

Except this was no longer the Minako she knew. Usagi had seen that with her own eyes. And after what Ami had said... but she didn't want to think about that.

There was an even more serious problem gnawing at her. The girls had met with Mamoru, Luna and Artemis at Hikawa Shrine and briefed them on what had happened. They had agreed that letting Lafarge help plan their attack was the right decision. But walking home with her afterwards, Mamoru had talked about something Jupiter had noticed: the way Lafarge kept referring to the Drakon as if it were an object, a machine. Mamoru had said something about the way people in a war would dehumanize their enemies, think of them as objects, so that it would be that much easier to kill them. He hadn't exactly said that Lafarge could not be trusted. But he was worried about how much faith they were putting in the story of this mysterious warrior.

Usagi walked back to her bed, flopped down on it and stared up at the ceiling. He was right, of course. But the things Lafarge had shown them, the horrific images of the Domination that the other girls had described, like the Roman Empire brought two millennia forward in time. How could he have made that all up? It all made so much sense, she wanted so much to believe it.

The phone rang. Thinking it might be Ami with news on their planned attack, Usagi jumped right out of bed and ran downstairs. It looked like everybody else was either busy or content to let her take the call. She picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Usagi?" The voice was hoarse and tearful, almost a whimper. But Usagi recognized it immediately.

"Minako-chan! Is something wrong?"

"Usagi, I just found out something horrible! I don't know what to do." She immediately started sobbing.

"Minako, what is it? Tell me," Usagi said, trying to hide her anxiety and sound comforting.

In a tiny voice, Minako spoke haltingly between sobs. "They're all her slaves! Just like on Gwen's world. She's even impregnated one of them. Or something. She wants to breed more. Make us all her slaves. That's what she said. And they all know it. They don't even care!"

This wasn't making much sense, but there was enough for Usagi to know that somehow Minako had discovered the truth. "Minako,  
listen to me. I'm not sure what's going on, but I think you should leave that house right now. Don't talk to anyone, just leave. I can come pick you up, meet you somewhere, okay?"

Minako was sobbing again. Usagi suppressed the urge to shout at her, scream at her to get out of there *now*! "I don't know.  
Gwen never told me about this. Maybe it's not true. Maybe I should ask Gwen."

"No, don't!" Usagi hissed. She took a deep breath, got her control back. "Minako, what you heard is true. That woman is using some sort of chemicals or hormones or something to control those people. She's probably using it on you too."

"What?" Minako sounded bewildered. "What do you mean?"

"It would take too long to explain. Minako, you've got to trust me, please!"

"Oh Usagi, I don't know what..." there was a click, and suddenly Usagi was listening to a dial tone. Her stomach knotted up as she remembered some of the things Lafarge had said, about intelligent computer programs monitoring telephone calls, warning the Drakon of anything suspicious. *Oh God*.

She hung up the phone and ran up the stairs to Chibi-usa's room. As Usagi came up the stairs into the attic room that was now Chibi-usa's bedroom, the young girl looked up from whatever she was doing at her desk. "Usagi, is something wrong?"

"Get dressed. We're going to Hakone right now. All of us."

*****

Gwen marched down the corridor, listening to her transducer confirm that the phone in Minako's room was now disconnected. She had let the call go long enough to trace it. Now she knew where their leader, Sailor Moon, lived with her family. Depending on how things went, that could prove useful later on. She opened the door to Minako's room without slowing down,  
letting it swing against the doorstop with a bang as she walked straight to Minako's bed. The terrified girl was kneeling on the bed, her reddened eyes fixed on Gwen's, the receiver still in her hand.

Gwen took the receiver out of Minako's hand and set it back on its hook on the night table, all the while her eyes still locked on Minako's. "Young lady, I would like to know why you were discussing my business with an outsider."

Minako opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She was trembling, and her fear scent was building. Gwen could see that she would have to stick to simple questions for now. She grabbed Minako's wrist, squeezed it hard enough to bring a whimper of pain from the girl. "Who told you these things? Which of my people were you talking to?"

"Reiko," she whispered, tears now streaming down her face.

The brooder. Of course. The drugs being pumped through her body by the Drakon foetus put her in a state of euphoria. She would have told Minako anything. Gwen had told her people to keep Minako away from the brooder for the time being, somebody was going to pay dearly for this. Right now, she had to figure out how much damage had been done. She was already releasing pheromones to induce fear and obedience, setting Minako up for interrogation.

"Your friend, Usagi, she believed Rei's story, didn't she?"

"Yes," Minako answered in an automaton-like voice.

"She knows I was the one at the temple, doesn't she?"

"Yes."

"But her friend Ami with her computer, she wasn't able to find out anything about me, was she?"

"No."

Gwen leaned closer. "Then how do we explain that Usagi seems to know about me? You've spoken to her about me before, haven't you?"

"No!" Minako pleaded. "Onesama, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I never should have called Usagi! But I was just so scared, the things Reiko said, I... I was just scared."

Gwen released her grip, stood up straight again. "She seems to know more than she let on over the phone. If you didn't talk to her, then that leaves only one other plausible source. She must be getting information from the Samothracian."

"What?" Minako breathed.

"Do you know what you've done, girl? After your little outburst, Usagi is going to believe whatever the Samothracian is telling her. She and the other Sailor Senshi are going to come here and help him assassinate me. They may be on their way right now."

Gwen could see the conflict going on in Minako's mind as plain as day. She was hesitating, agonizing over divided loyalties. She had seen enough. With blinding speed her arm whipped up and came down on Minako's neck. The girl's body shuddered under the impact, and she slumped down onto the bed. She lay there,  
utterly still.

Gwen subvocalized a command to her transducer. "Iwata, it's me. I'm in Miss Aino's room. Gather two men you can trust and meet me here without delay." She broke the connection with Iwata's earphone without bothering to await a reply. At least his obedience was something she could rely upon.

Gwen made a mental note to incorporate some more elegant non-lethal weaponry into her armour. Normally a Drakon would have no use for such a thing, but she would be dealing with feral humans for many years to come. It would be impractical to kill every one that she needed to subdue. And just knocking them unconscious this way was not exactly reliable. There would be time to set the girl straight later, right now she had preparations to make.

Part Three

Lafarge had been waiting in front of the little shrine for about half an hour when he heard the approaching footsteps. Five sets, running up the path that came from the valley below. Very light and very long strides. They sounded more like a little herd of bipedal gazelles. The five Sailor Senshi bound into the moonlit clearing one after the other, slowing to a walk as they approached him. He noted that they were all just slightly winded from their long run up the slope. They had endurance that could easily match his own, perhaps even that of the Snake.

Sailor Moon stepped forward from the group. Her expression was even more grim and anxious than that of her companions. "Thank you for coming, Lafarge-san," she said solemnly.

"You've left me with little choice," Lafarge said, making no effort to hide his displeasure. "I am still violently opposed to this. They have only done one short calibration test so far,  
they are at least days away from another full power test. There is still more analysis and planning we can do, and we have the time. This attack is entirely premature." He knew he was sounding preachy, like a teacher scolding a little girl, but that was exactly how he saw her right now.

"Then stay here and we'll go do it ourselves!" Jupiter snapped.  
She looked restless, eager to jump into action. At least she wasn't wasting energy being tensed up, Lafarge noted, she stood loosely like a seasoned thoroughbred in the starting gate.

Sailor Moon raised a hand to her side, motioning her companion to silence. "Lafarge-san, please try to understand. Our friend is in great danger, we simply can't abandon her."

"Your friend may very well be prepared to defend the Drakon against you."

Sailor Moon shook her head. "No. She would never hurt any of us, no matter what that woman has done to her."

Lafarge sighed. "If the Drakon has failed to gain her complete loyalty, then it will consider the girl to be a potential traitor, a potential threat. I think you know what that means."

Jupiter stepped forward, a dangerous look on her face. "If that creature has... has harmed Venus in any way, she had better hope that you find her before I do. I won't let her die easily."

Sailor Mars came forward to lay a hand on her tall friend's shoulder. It seemed to calm her a bit. Mars then turned to Lafarge. "Lafarge-san, we are aware that there are larger issues at stake, that attacking now may not be the wisest move. But Sailor Moon is right, we cannot abandon our friend. If that is weakness, so be it. I'm sorry, but even if you don't agree to join us, we are going."

"As I said , you've left me little choice." This was true enough. Even a premature attack with all of them stood a greater chance than Lafarge attacking alone. Especially the way Mercury's scans had shown the Drakon's computer network spread around both the villa and the beacon complex. A simultaneous attack on both fronts was almost mandatory.

"I think we should review the plan again," Mercury said. "It will only take a few minutes."

"No more than ten minutes," Jupiter said adamantly. "We've wasted enough time here already."

"Agreed," Lafarge said, already pulling out his holographic projector and heading for the shrine building. In ten minutes he would be assaulting a stronghold defended by an immortal Drakon, the Sailor Senshi who had put a hole in his stomach and whatever else the Snake had waiting in its nest. At his side were four girls halfway through puberty and one who wasn't even there yet. He could hardly wait.

*****

Mercury crouched behind the bushes just outside the tall steel wire fence. One last time, she surveyed the villa, the complex and the grounds around them with her visor. There was no sign of the Drakon or of Minako, and the only activity was the usual assortment of guards and servants moving about. Nothing to indicate that they needed to change or abort their plan.

She withdrew the visor, took two running steps, and leaped the fence in a single bound. As soon as she hit the ground, she crossed her arms before her, and the shimmering blue-white ball of her Shabon Spray materialized before her. She flung her arms out wide, willing the magic-spawned mist to spread out all across the grounds between her and the buildings. It looked like a high-speed film of clouds forming, seen in miniature at ground level. In seconds, the whole area was shrouded in an impenetrable white fog.

She ran through the fog towards the villa. The stone wall loomed before her, a featureless black barrier even to her Sailor Senshi eyes. She vaulted it, landing on the stone path in the garden, exactly where it was supposed to be. She ran for the wing of the house that loomed before her. There was a huge floor to ceiling window looking out onto the garden. She sent a light, quick-draw version of the Shine Aqua Illusion at the window. The glass shattered instantly under the strain of being flash frozen. Without hesitation, she leapt through the ragged opening and into the big sitting room beyond. As she did, to her left and right, almost simultaneously, she heard the sound of Burning Mandala and Sparkling Wide Pressure shattering two walls.

*Make your own entrances,* Lafarge had warned. *Don't use the doors.*

The room was dark and quiet. Mercury leapt for the big double doors in front of her, flung them open and ran out into the hallway beyond. Unlike the room, it was well lit and it was not deserted. Two big men in suits were just turning at the sound of her entry. Mercury ran straight for them. One raised what may have been a cellular phone to his mouth. But Mercury had to direct her attention to the other, who was reaching for something under his jacket. He was halfway through drawing his gun when Mercury's flying kick caught him squarely in the solar plexus. Without any fuss, he fell down sprawling on his back,  
his weapon clattering to the floor.

"We've made contact!" the other shouted into his communicator. He still seemed to be wondering how to describe what exactly he had made contact with when half a second later a punch too fast for the eye to see sent him staggering back, doubled over,  
clutching his stomach. A quick blow to the neck, and he was down.

*Don't be squeamish about dealing with the Drakon's hired help.  
At least cripple them or make sure they'll be out of commission for several minutes. One way or the other, this will be over quickly.*

Mercury scooped the gun up off the ground and continued to her designated target. As she ran, she pulled the hammer of the pistol back, and tore it right off with her gloved hand. Even with her enhanced strength, it was difficult. She tossed both away without slowing down. Nobody would be using that weapon any time soon.

A doorway took her into a big private office. It was lit only by lights that illuminated four ornamental vases that occupied alcoves in the walls. More than enough light to confirm that the room was deserted. Still warily surveying her surroundings,  
Mercury walked to the big desk in the middle of the room. She reached behind her, and willed her hand into the space that held what she was looking for, the space that usually just held her Silver Millennium computer. The space that held her Sailor Senshi outfit when she was just plain Ami... or at least that was what Mercury assumed. By a process she could hardly fathom,  
the first object Lafarge had given her appeared in her hand again.

She walked to the computer terminal at the desk and placed the small black disk on top of the small system unit that the monitor rested on top of. A tiny red light appeared in the centre of the disk. Mercury divided her attention between watching the disk and continuing to scan the room for any threat. After a few moments that seemed like an eternity, the light on the disk turned green.

*When you see the green, the microprobes sent out by the disk has made contact with the Drakon's inner computer network. It will immediately send out the killer probes to attack and disable the network. At that point, your part of the work is done.*

Her primary mission completed, Mercury did what she hoped the others were by now doing: moving on to the task of finding Minako. The fact that she had not heard from her companions meant that nobody had made contact with the Drakon yet.

Or at least, nobody had been able to report contact with the Drakon.

Mercury opened another door to what she had surmised from the layout to be the Drakon's sleeping quarters. They were as sumptuous as the size of the room had suggested they would be. Like the attached office, the main lights were out but she could see clearly by the little spotlights that dimly illuminated various works of art in alcoves around the walls. There was no sign of life. Mercury moved to the door that led to what had looked like an elaborate bathing facility, and a gymnasium of some sort beyond.

Mercury knew about the tunnel to the beacon complex, so had been keeping her eye on the full-length mirror that hid the doorway. Even so, she was taken utterly by surprise when the mirror shattered and something flew straight through it into the room.

*****

Just as Mercury had warned him, the uncanny silver mist he ran through absorbed everything his active sensors threw at it. Incredibly, even the ultrasound sonar was coming back with nothing. Guided only by the inertial guidance system embedded in his skull, the flat, dark expanse of the beacon complex wall soon loomed before him. Barely visible just a couple of meters away were the glass doors of the side entrance. At point blank range he put three plasma bolts through them in quick succession. The glass shattered, the metal frames twisted and melted, the room beyond burst into flame, its far wall blasted away. Lafarge ran through the inferno, protected by his silvery armour and helmet. The doorway on the far wall had been twisted by the nearby plasma bolt impact, so he kicked it open, entering the hallway beyond along with billowing smoke that poured from the burning room out along the hallway ceiling. His next two shots were for the two men coming down the hall, one aiming his pistol, the other just drawing his own. Their bewildered,  
frightened faces disappeared behind twin fireballs. With two more shots he blasted away the hinges of a metal door to his right, one he knew led to a stairway going up to the restricted second level and his first designated target. He grabbed the door where a big piece of it had been taken out and managed to lever what was left of it aside. Even through his heat resistant glove, the touch of the slowly cooling metal was painful. He took the steps four at a time and literally flew out into the corridor at their summit.

The men here were somewhat more prepared. Shots rang out almost as soon as he touched the ground. Three of them,  
shooting from what little cover open doorways could provide. He was hit twice, in the faceplate and the chest. A perfect head shot and body shot. Even with his armour, the former left him slightly dazed, and the latter just plain hurt. Instinct taking over, Lafarge dove down to the floor and let off three more bolts. Two hits, one miss. The latter had ducked in through the doorway, but the scream he heard told him even that one had been hit by the fireball or by shrapnel. He leapt to his feet,  
swept his gaze all around. No immediate threats. He ran down the corridor. As he passed the blasted doorway through which the one he missed had ducked, his gun was pointed through the opening. So was that of the man down on the floor. They shot almost simultaneously. Lafarge got another painful hit to the side of his armour, and in exchange the man who shot him got most of his chest blasted away.

He came to the entrance to the control room, an even heavier steel door with an electronic lock. This one took four quick shots to dislodge. Lafarge could see the heat rippling off his plasma gun, now almost hot enough to be glowing. He ran at the door, which was twisted and already almost falling over, and dove at it, slamming his back into it down near the floor.

This move probably saved his life, since a plasma bolt from inside the room blew away the upper part of the door just as it was thrown open.

He rolled and dove behind a big control console. This control room, as he already knew, had several such consoles dotted across the floor, providing plenty of places for cover. He had not seen where the bolt came from. His opponent therefore had the advantage on him at the moment, and there seemed little he could do but wait.

He heard somebody take a step. There might be more than one of them, but... Lafarge leapt straight up onto the top of the big,  
bulky console in front of him, a meter and a half off the floor.  
He shot towards the movement he saw almost before he registered what it was, then went down flat on the metal top of the console. He'd hit another of the Suits. From his brief vantage, he'd seen no other threats. Nothing else had taken a shot at him. He jumped back down to the floor, crouching down near the burning corpse. He scanned the room, watching,  
listening. Nothing but the smouldering meat and fabric, the smoke and stench working its way through the room. Lafarge's gaze rested upon the gun on the floor nearby.

A plasma gun. The Drakon's gun. It had been this man who had tried to shoot him with it.

Lafarge worked his way around the room, staying behind cover as much as possible. The expected attack never came. He reached his target without seeing any further sign of the enemy.

He crouched down with his back to the console he rested against. One hand still holding his gun at the ready, he reached for the handle on the metal panel beside him, turned it and swung the panel open. There was a mass of wiring behind it.  
One very thin black wire leading to a tiny black box sat exactly where Mercury's scans had said it would be. Still directing most of his attention to the room around him, Lafarge touched his armour over one leg and a pocket opened up. He removed a little black disk from the pocket, and placed it on the featureless little box that sat within the console near the floor. Immediately, his little electronic ally started sending him data. It burrowed its microscopic tendrils into this node of the Drakon's network. It would take several minutes to take it over, shut down its functions and dump its core memory.

While he waited for his probe to do its work, Lafarge had nothing to occupy him except scanning for any new threats, a task that the trained warrior did mostly with his subconscious. He found himself wondering how his young allies were faring. He was tempted to call Sailor Moon with the communicator he had given her, but decided to follow the protocol they had set:  
transmit only to report mission completed or to report contact with the Drakon.

Lafarge became aware of a humming noise that was slowly building. It seemed to be coming from the big window that opened into the cavernous reactor room. Staying down near the floor, Lafarge crept up to the window and peered over its lower windowsill, down to the reactor room below. It was lit up by the ceiling floodlights far above, but appeared to be deserted. He was surprised to see that much of the equipment he had damaged had simply been removed. He was only vaguely aware of the design requirements for a molehole beacon, but he was sure that some of the things he had destroyed, though not necessary for working the reactor, were definitely required for the machine to successfully function as a beacon. Yet it looked like there had been no attempt to repair or replace them.

The humming increased in intensity. Even through this thick glass it was quickly building to an alarming level. The reactor, which could not possibly be ready for use as a beacon yet, was being brought up to power.

*****

Minako was aware of little else but the throbbing at the back of her head. Then something else registered on her slowly returning consciousness. A distant sound, a staccato beat that went on for a couple of seconds and was gone. Easily heard even from this side of the house, it must have been earsplitting wherever it came from. Something in the rhythm, duration and character of the detonations stirred a memory, a vision of a mandala.

Burning Mandala.

Trying to ignore the pain and the fuzziness in her head, Minako opened her eyes a bit. She already had been vaguely aware that she was lying on the carpet, bound and gagged. She recognized the room. It was the private office of Professor Van Kreveld. It was a big room, with his desk and cabinets at one end, a small meeting table at the other end. She had been here a couple of times when he was helping her with her Physics lessons.

But it was not Van Kreveld who was watching over her, it was two of Iwata's men. The fat one paced up and down. He was trying to just look annoyed at playing babysitter, but he looked scared. Both he and the other man each had a single small earphone with a wire leading to something in their breast pocket. They seemed to be listening to something, reacting to it with concern and confusion. Minako could almost imagine the frantic reports of sailor-suited young girls who moved like greased lightning and shot fantastical weapons from their fingertips. The two men had been talking earlier, when Minako was only half conscious, arguing about whether it was too late to evacuate or something.

Her friends were coming to rescue her. Minako closed her eyes again. *Oh God, what have I done?*

Her last thought upon losing consciousness had been that Gwen had killed her. The way her head felt, it may have been a near thing. It was still difficult to think clearly. But what Reiko had told her, what Usagi had been trying to tell her, and what Gwen had done to her were all fresh in her mind. It was starting to sink in, the real magnitude of her colossal error.

There was a shout and the sound of a scuffle from the next room. Somebody fell to the floor. Both of the men in the room drew their guns. The door flew open.

"Freeze, don't move!" the fat man bellowed. He and his companion covered the two newcomers with their weapons held straight out in two-handed grips.

Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi-moon did what they were told, they froze.

Sailor Moon met Minako's eyes. Despite her predicament, she smiled, looked infinitely relieved to see her friend alive. Never mind that she was about to be shot.

The two men hesitated. They seemed unable to believe that these two little girls in colourful sailor suits were really the threat that was assaulting their stronghold.

Sailor Moon looked at the fat man. "We have no quarrel with you, but Ingolfsson is holding our friend against her will, and we are here to take her back."

The man seemed to be coming to the realization that he was facing something more than a little girl. Something that was a threat. Minako whimpered with dread as he seemed to work up the resolve to shoot.

The window exploded in at them.

By reflex, the two men swung around to face the window, weapons still extended. But they were looking too low. The shadow came down on them from above, where the arc of its flight had taken it nearly to the ceiling. Black and red cape billowing out like bat wings, the shadow fell upon them. They both were thrown back by blows that Minako could hear but did not see. They fell heavily to the ground. Tuxedo Kamen landed right beside them,  
crouching down as his legs absorbed his fall, then standing up straight. He spared only quick glances at his future wife and child and at Minako to satisfy himself that they were not hurt,  
then looked down at his two targets to make sure that they stayed down.

Sailor Moon seemed to shrink down into herself. She involuntarily cringed, panting and trembling from the released tension. "That... that was just too close." She shook her head as if to clear it. "Sailor Chibi-moon, over there," she suddenly said, pointing over to a computer workstation at the other end of the room.

"Okay," Sailor Chibi-moon said. She jogged over to the workstation. She had some small black thing in her hand that Minako could not see clearly.

Meanwhile, Sailor Moon ran over and knelt beside Minako. Quickly but carefully, she untied the cloth gag that covered her mouth and removed it. "Minako-chan, are you okay?" she asked. Her voice was husky, she couldn't seem to decide whether the emotion overcoming her was relief or worry.

Minako nodded. Sailor Moon went to work on the ropes that bound her. Minako opened her mouth to speak, hesitated. There was so much she needed to say, but her head was still fuzzy and she didn't know where to begin. As soon as Sailor Moon had her arms free, Minako impulsively flung them around her friend and squeezed her tight, even as her numbed hands were just starting to tingle with renewed bloodflow. "Usagi, I'm so sorry..." she sobbed.

"It's okay, Minako," Sailor Moon said, gently returning Minako's embrace. "Don't cry. It'll be okay."

"Sailor Moon, you should report to the others," Tuxedo Kamen said from where he stood nearby.

Sailor Moon gently pulled herself away from Minako's embrace,  
helped her sit against the nearby wall. "He's right, I have to tell them you're okay," she said to Minako apologetically. She obviously thought that comforting her friend was more important,  
but she had her duty to perform. She touched the communicator at her wrist. Its face flipped up, and she brought it up close to her mouth. "Everyone, I've found Minako and she's okay. We're in Professor Van Kreveld's office. Please come as quickly as you can."

Minako heard an immediate acknowledgement come in from Sailor Jupiter. Absently she wondered where Jupiter had been looking for her. Were they looking in the beacon complex as well?

The beacon complex.

"Sailor Moon!" Minako shouted. The others started at the panic in her voice. "Gwen is going to blow up the reactor! The beacon is useless to her, she doesn't need it anymore! She's using it as a trap!"

Sailor Moon's face froze in a rictus of shock and panic. In less than a second, she snapped out of it and started fumbling with something worn on her other wrist. It was a device Minako had never seen before, a bit bulkier than the Sailor Senshi communicator on her left wrist.

"Lafarge!" she shouted into it. "The Drakon is going to blow up the reactor! It's a trap! You've got to get out of there now!"

*****

Reacting on instinct, Mercury crouched down and launched herself in a low dive straight towards the mirror and under the thing that flew up out of it. She heard something swish through the air right above and behind her as she went into her roll and came up into a crouch among the glass fragments, facing back towards where the thing would land on the other side of the room. The first thing she noted was a tiny piece of her skirt fluttering to the floor nearby. It looked like it had been cut away by scissors; no knife could be sharp enough to cut it away that cleanly in midair.

The second thing she noticed was the Drakon hitting the floor and turning to face her, brandishing a long black-bladed knife.

As the Drakon in her black armour screamed in challenge and rushed her, Mercury reached behind her and willed into her hand the second object Lafarge had given her. She touched the stud on the handle and whipped it around in front of her. Just as she had seen happen when she had tried it out experimentally in the little shrine, a glowing red wire the shape of a half-meter knife blade shot out the end of the handle. Just on time to parry the knife thrust the Drakon sent her way.

*Use these as a last resort. If you find yourself in hand-to-hand combat with the Drakon, try to disengage and withdraw as quickly as possible. That is the sort of fight at which it excels.*

But the Drakon was giving her no opportunity to disengage. Momentarily surprised that her opponent carried a Samothracian weapon, she now seemed consumed with battle lust. It was all Mercury could do just to dodge and parry that inky black blade that she knew would cut through flesh and bone like butter if it connected. She was keeping one step ahead of the attacks with her inhuman speed and with instincts honed by her recent Shadow Dancing training. But she was completely on the defensive. It was only a matter of time before she was struck down.

"Fire Soul!" The dark room was suddenly lit up with blazing yellow light. The Drakon sprang forward, dodging the coming attack and rushing at Mercury in the same move. She was not quite quick enough to avoid the fireball completely. It splashed off her back, sending tendrils of flame scattering in all directions, instead of enveloping her in flame as a direct hit would have. The Drakon howled in pain, Mercury barely jumping out of the way of her attack. The Drakon did not turn to engage again but just kept running past Mercury, smoke trailing from all down the back of her armour. She threw open the door to the attached bathing room, leaped through it and was gone.

Sailor Mercury stood panting and trembling, her knife-arm shaking badly, still watching the door through which her enemy had escaped. She knew the battle was over for now, but her adrenaline-drenched body didn't know it yet.

"Mercury?" Sailor Mars had approached cautiously, keeping some distance from Mercury as she came around from behind her friend,  
aware of her current state. "Sailor Mercury, are you okay?"

Mercury just nodded. She pulled back the stud on the handle,  
and the wire snapped back into place. She managed to give Mars a weak smile. "I'm okay."

Mars looked her over, then frowned as her gaze dropped down to Mercury's body. "Mercury, you're bleeding," she said, pointing to Mercury's right side.

Mercury looked down and gasped. The semi-rigid portion of the Sailor Senshi uniform that protected her torso had been slashed cleanly. Blood was oozing out of the horizontal cut across her ribs and was dripping down her skirt.

"Let me look at it," Mars said. She walked over and knelt down beside Mercury, who stood still for her. "Does it hurt?"

"It's just starting to," Mercury said. She was becoming more aware of the pain as her adrenaline rush slowly wore off.

"I don't think it's too deep, probably no muscles cut, at least not seriously. But we have to stop the bleeding." Mars walked quickly over to the bed, flung aside the bedspread and began to tear savagely at the silk bedsheet below.

Mercury walked slowly over to where Mars was tearing away a long strip of silk. She suddenly noticed a dark spot on the side of Mars' uniform, almost hidden by the raven hair flowing down her back. A gouge in the white armour surrounded by a larger black spot. Powder burns. "Mars, you've been shot!"  
Mercury said in alarm.

Sailor Mars just nodded, not looking up from her work. "One of them took me by surprise. It hurt, but it didn't go through the armour." She smiled a little. "Good thing he didn't try to shoot me in the head." The smile faded, replaced by a pained look. "He was going to shoot again, I... I had to burn him alive."

Mercury shuddered. *Oh Rei...* "I didn't know our armour was bullet proof," was all she could think to say.

"Neither did I," Mars said. Satisfied that she had enough silk, she knelt down by Mercury and started wrapping it around her torso. It didn't seem to make much sense setting it over the armour, but they had found out long ago that the Sailor Senshi uniforms had healing qualities of their own that it was best not to interfere with. This was simply to stop or at least slow the flow of blood.

Their communicators chimed, indicating an incoming message. Mercury flipped hers up and held it for both of them to hear. It was Sailor Moon's voice. "Everyone, I've found Minako and she's okay. We're in Professor Van Kreveld's office. Please come as quickly as you can."

"On my way," Jupiter's voice came almost immediately. Mercury was going to reply, but suddenly heard Minako's voice. She was too far away from the communicator to be heard clearly, but she sounded frantic. Mercury brought her wrist up to her ear,  
trying to hear more clearly, but the signal suddenly stopped.

"What do you think that was about?" Mars said as she finished tying the makeshift bandage.

"I don't know, Minako sounded almost hysterical about something. I think we should hurry over there."

"No, we are going to *walk* over there, you are in no condition to be running," Mars said sternly.

Mercury knew she was right, so she didn't argue. Mars preceded her out into the office, warily scanning the room before entering. Mercury trailed silently behind. She still had the knife handle at the ready. She didn't like making noise when the Drakon was still at large, but she realized that she should report in to tell the others what had happened.

The dark window suddenly blazed brightly as night became day. Half a second later the room was hit by a concussion that blew out the window and threw the two Sailor Senshi down to the ground along with anything else that wasn't nailed down.

*****

"Acknowledged." The voice coming over the communicator that Lafarge had given to Sailor Moon betrayed only enough concern to let her know that he had heard and understood her message. She turned off the communicator and finished untying Minako.

"Lafarge... is he the Samothracian?" Minako asked.

"Yes," Sailor Moon said. "He's here to.." *to kill your onesama* "to keep the Draka from invading our world."

Minako's eyes filled with tears again. "Oh Usagi, you were right all along, I..."

Sailor Moon gently put a finger over Minako's lips and shook her head, smiling. "It's okay, Minako. It's not your fault."

Even in the brightly lit room, the sudden flash from the shattered window was startling. Instinctively, Tuxedo Kamen dove down and threw himself protectively over the two girls. Just on time for the floor to jump up at them as the shock wave rolled through the villa.

Dazed, her hears ringing, Sailor Moon pushed herself up into a sitting position. The lights had gone out. It was pitch dark. Almost. Flickering light came in through the window. Looking out, the sky seemed to be full of billowing smoke, lit orange by what must have been some colossal fire.

The reactor. Sailor Moon was overwhelmed with dread. There was no way Lafarge could have gotten out in time.

"Is everyone okay?" Tuxedo Mask asked from a short distance away. Sailor Moon saw him get to his feet. He was barely visible in the darkness.

"I'm fine," Sailor Moon replied tonelessly. *Lafarge. Oh no.*

"Me too," Minako said. She also stood up, rubbing her legs,  
getting the circulation back into them.

They heard footsteps coming from the next room. Everyone tensed. They relaxed as a familiar tall, lithe silhouette in skirt and topknot ran into the room. "Is everyone okay?"  
Jupiter asked. "What the hell was that?"

Their communicators chimed. Sailor Moon opened hers. Immediately, Sailor Mars' voice came through loud and clear. "Sailor Moon, answer me! Are you okay?"

"Yes. It was the beacon that blew up."

There was a moment of silence. No doubt Mars realized what that meant. "Sailor Moon, I'm with Mercury. The Drakon attacked her. We drove her off, but she's only hurt."

Sailor Moon felt dread of a different sort. "Get here as quickly as you can," she said into the communicator and snapped it shut. Suddenly becoming painfully aware of the darkness,  
Sailor Moon removed the tiara from her forehead. It floated over her hand and began to spin rapidly as she willed it into its discus form. The shimmering golden disk bathed the room in a soft light. She looked around the room, her dread suddenly becoming panic. "Where's Chibi-moon?" she asked, her voice full of anguish.

They all looked about the room, calling her name. She did not answer, and was nowhere to be seen. Sailor Moon ran over to the computer workstation the little girl had been standing next to.

Beside it, a small door that she hadn't noticed before stood ajar. She was gone.

Absently, she glanced at a little green light at the workstation. A small black disk attached to the computer. Chibi-moon had completed her task. She was gone.

Sailor Moon was aware of the others gathering silently behind her. Chibi-moon would never have wandered off on her own. She was gone.

"As soon as Mars and Mercury show up, we'll go look for her,"  
Jupiter said. She put a comforting hand on Sailor Moon's shoulder, but her voice was full of despair.

*If the Drakon senses defeat, it may try to escape but more likely it will lose control and turn into a berserker. It is a killer by nature, that is what it will revert to when backed into a corner.*

Sailor Moon was vaguely aware of Mars and Mercury entering the room, and Jupiter explaining what had happened. Tuxedo Kamen came up to her, took her gently by the shoulders. She looked up at him. She could see him fighting his own anguish, trying to be strong for her. In a voice low enough to be for her ears only, he said, "Usako, we have to go find our daughter."

Sailor Moon nodded. She turned to face the others. Mercury was bandaged and leaning on Mars for support. She noticed Sailor Moon's concern. "I'm okay, Usagi," she said, managing a smile.

"But she's in no condition to be moving around," Sailor Mars said, standing protectively beside her injured friend. "I'll take her some place safe and watch over her, you can..."

Lights suddenly came on. Not the normal room lights, but little emergency lights in the corners of the ceiling. Everyone looked around in silence, suddenly tense and alert. Almost involuntarily Sailor Moon let the tiara stop spinning. She absently caught in in her hand as it stopped levitating, and replaced it on her forehead.

"This is Gwendolyn Ingolfsson." There were gasps of alarm. The voice had come from the intercom on Van Kreveld's big desk. "I have your friend with me. I expect to see all five of you in the northwest courtyard in plain view five minutes from now. Otherwise, I still have the knife I used to slice up Minako's pretty little bedmate. Maybe I'll start with the ears." The speaker went dead, and the light on the intercom winked out.

There was an anguished cry of despair. Sailor Moon was surprised to find it had not come from her. Minako fell down to her knees, covered her face with her hands. "Oh God, it's my fault. It's all my fault."

Sailor Moon took a deep breath, managed to fight down panic,  
get herself under control. They didn't have much time. She walked over and knelt down in front of Minako. She took the sobbing girl's wrists, gently pulling her hands away from her face. Firmly clasping both trembling hands in one of her own,  
Sailor Moon reached out and tilted up Minako's chin with her other hand, making Minako meet her gaze.

"Sailor Venus, I'm going to need your help."

*****

The shattered windows of the second floor room where Gwen stood waiting let in dim light from the underlit smoke above and from the outdoor emergency lights below. She sent out one last signal with her transducer, got nothing but dead air back. All network functions and their backups were down. They had known exactly where to hit her. The only weapon she had left was her hostage.

Gwen looked down at the little girl she held tightly to her chest with one arm. Sailor Chibi-moon, they called her. Gwen had been waiting just outside the second door to Van Kreveld's office, where the building motion sensors had detected movement that was most likely the enemy. Waiting for the explosion that would stun them, giving her the momentary advantage. Seconds after the concussion she had burst into the room. The little one had been right in front of her, lying stunned on the ground,  
an easy kill.

But her network had been shutting down already, she was injured and she still faced five powerful enemies. She had taken the opportunity to grab a hostage. As distasteful as it might be,  
feral humans sometimes had to be bargained with.

The little girl held her left forearm tightly in her right hand. Despite her tight grip, blood still oozed slowly from between her fingers. When the girl's head had cleared a bit and she realized her situation, she had begun to struggle. A quick slice with the layer knife had convinced her to cooperate.

Gwen continued to stare at the girl with wonder. Her fear scent was overpowering, and tears of pain were streaming down her cheeks. But she maintained an expression of stoic resolve,  
held herself still, made no sound. Her body was even starting to relax a bit. Gwen got the impression that the girl had been through worse than this. She thought back to Minako's unbelievable stories of a lord of chaos from the future and of invaders from Tau Ceti. She didn't know how much of that she could believe, but she certainly could believe that this girl had been through hell and back more than once. And now they had thrown her into combat again. Either these Sailor Senshi were certifiably insane, or they just believed in giving their children a baptism of fire that even the Draka would balk at. In her brief struggle, Chibi-moon had displayed superhuman strength. The Drakon warrior had no trouble dealing with the diminutive girl, but it was clear she was touched by the same magic that gave the other Sailor Senshi their power.

Magic. That's what Minako called it. Magic that let that cursed little blue-haired bookworm flit about like she was weightless, making Gwen look like she was trying to hit a butterfly with a club. But there was nothing magical about the way that fight had been interrupted, nothing the least bit magical about the second and third degree burns all down her back, the armour stiffened with most of its various layers fused together. That armour was supposed to shrug off anything but a direct hit from a powerful plasma gun. That Fire Soul, whatever in Hell it was, seemed to reach right through it, penetrating deep into her body. It was like a radiation burn without the radiation. If she were a human, the injury would probably have left her in shock by now.

She checked the chronometer in her transducer. It was time. She held the layer knife horizontally a few centimetres away from Chibi-moon's throat and advanced to the window that faced the courtyard. She stepped through the broken glass and out onto the elegant stone balcony.

She did a quick head count. All known hostiles accounted for. She waited for one of them to notice her and point her out to the others. Gwen smiled down at them, still holding the layer knife close to her little burden. Chibi-moon's expression had not changed. Gwen's tight grip was probably hurting her as much as the cut on her arm, but she seemed resolved not to show it in any way.

"What do you want from us, Ingolfsson?" Sailor Moon asked. She couldn't fool Gwen with that feigned aggression. She was desperate, ready to agree to anything. Good. Gwen decided to let them sweat for a few moments while she sized them up.

Their leader Sailor Moon reminded her a lot of Minako. She could see why their friends wondered if they were sisters separated at birth. Her uniform was somewhat more flamboyant than the others, she must be in Super Sailor Moon as Minako had called it. So however desperate she was to make a deal, she was geared up for a fight. Standing protectively behind her was a man who seemed ready to melt into the shadows at any moment. His black outfit, like elaborate formal wear, somehow made him fit right in to the elegant courtyard with its marble fountains and elaborate flower gardens. So he was the one mated to their leader. From what Minako had said, it looked like this one had the M.O. of an assassin. He would bear close scrutiny. Off to one side stood the blue-clad Mercury she had fought and the red-clad Mars who had taken Gwen's prey from her. Gwen was surprised to see that the former was still standing. That last slice must have cut through more armour and less flesh than she had thought. But she was bandaged, and Mars hovered around her as if she needed protection. So there was at least one out of commission for now. And though the signs were subtle, it was obvious to Gwen that Mars was still fighting the same primal fear that overcome her at their first... no their, second meeting. On the other side of their leader stood Jupiter. Even at this distance, Gwen could feel the tall warrior's gaze burrowing into her. Minako had all but said that this one was the strongest, the most aggressive of the group. Gwen could almost see the gears working behind those burning eyes, looking her up and down, searching for any sign of weakness. Gwen got the impression that if her attention wavered for more than a second, this one was willing and able to send a very nasty surprise coming her way. If she was stronger than Venus, she no doubt had something in her arsenal that would have no trouble taking Gwen's head off. She would have to watch this one closely too. Time to begin.

"Listen closely, I'm not going to repeat myself. This is what's going to happen. You are all going to transform back into your human forms. I am going to come down there and you are going to precede me to my private garage. Since you know where everything else is here, I'm sure you know where that is too. You are going to watch me toss this girl into the trunk of my car and you are going to stand in plain sight as you watch me drive away. I don't need to tell you what will happen if I see any sign of any of you following me. I will drop the girl off somewhere that she can make her way home and then I will go on to wherever it is I want to go. Tell me if there is any part of that you did not understand."

"How do we know you'll really set her free?" Sailor Moon asked.  
Again, the feigned aggression trying to hide the desperation.

"Because I said so. Any other questions?"

Sailor Moon shook her head.

"Oh, and one last thing. Before you transform back, you will give me the Ginzuishou."

"What?" At least three voices in unison. Gwen was too far away to hear subvocalization, but their astonishment told her everything.

She grinned down at them. "Yes, Minako told me all about that too. I understand enough to know that it is your main source of power and your most potent weapon. I have no idea how it is used, but I don't need to, all I need to do is keep it out of your hands. Minako and the Ginzuishou will be my insurance, my guarantee against interference from you. But don't worry, I'm willing to give you something in return. I will go to America and I won't try to come back. I will abandon all activity in your country and will make no attempt to reoccupy the beacon site."

"You've got to be kidding!" Jupiter snarled. She pointed an accusing finger up at the Drakon. "Lafarge told us all about what you've got planned! He showed us what you can do, even without bringing more of your people across! There's no way in Hell we're letting you go!"

Gwen's thoughts were sidetracked for a moment. *Lafarge? A descendent of the Yankee bastard my mother sent running to Alpha Centauri, perhaps? Wouldn't that be sweet.* "The dearly departed Samothracian must have had some interesting stories to tell you. Yes, I plan on making some changes back in America. But they'll be changes for the better. We Draka have kept our Earth free of war for four hundred years, can you say the same for the Earth that is under your protection?"

"They make a wasteland and call it peace," Tuxedo Kamen said bitterly in latin, then repeated in Japanese.

Gwen smiled at the apt reference to the Roman Empire. "From what Minako told me you've created a few wastelands of your own.  
What you did in the caves under the Arctic Sea was tantamount to genocide. Like you, we do whatever is necessary to protect our people and our peace. Like you, we are warriors who were born and bred do the things that the people under our protection can't do or can't stomach." She noted Sailor Moon's reaction. That one had really hit home.

"We're nothing at all like you!" Sailor Mars shouted. "We won't enslave people or turn them into zombies just to make them do what we want! And we won't let you do it either!"

Gwen nodded. "Fine, we understand each other. Once Minako and I are away, all bets are off. If you do choose to come after us later, I'll certainly try to make things interesting for you. But right now, you have a simple choice to make." She squeezed Chibi-moon closer for emphasis. The little girl grunted at the pain in her ribs.

Sailor Moon nodded. "I understand."

Her companions all turned to look at her, the meaning of those simple words sinking in. "Sailor Moon..." Jupiter breathed,  
shaking her head in disbelief. Sailor Moon shot her a dangerous look, and Jupiter went still and silent. She glared up at Gwen with that same look for a moment, then closed her eyes. She brought her hands up to her breast, forming a circle around the locket that sat in the middle of that big red ribbon. Something there started to glow. It was neither her hands nor the locket,  
more like a disembodied light forming in midair between her hands. Gwen looked closely, but could make no sense out of what she saw. Something was very simply materializing out of thin air. A brightly glowing crystal. It filled the courtyard with an unearthly glow the likes of which Gwen had never seen. It was like purified moonlight that penetrated and wrapped around everything in sight, leaving no shadows. Gwen felt vaguely uncomfortable, as if some invisible force were penetrating down to the core of her being. The simple sensors in her body armour were not picking up radiation or anything else unusual, so Gwen tried to ignore the disquieting feeling.

The glow from the crystal mostly faded, and it slowly settled down into Sailor Moon's outstretched hands. She fixed Gwen with that dangerous look again. This time, there was no mistaking the genuine hatred behind those eyes. She was no longer just posturing. "You have to guarantee Chibi-usa's safety," she said sternly.

"I have no reason to lie. I understand that you would be more likely to come after me if you were seeking revenge. I'm really hoping you'll come to see things my way and we can each be content ruling over half the planet."

"We rule nobody," Sailor Moon said flatly. With an underhanded toss she sent the Ginzuishou flying straight at Gwen.

Gwen was almost taken off guard by the sudden move. But she was prepared. With a subvocalized command, she opened up a breast pouch in her armour. At the same time, she buried the tip of her layer knife into the stone railing in front of her,  
so that the handle stuck up near where the Ginzuishou would fly by. She figured the knife would be out of her hand for no more than two seconds, not long enough for anybody below to try anything. At just the last moment she released the knife handle. She grabbed the Ginzuishou and it exploded in her hand.

Or at least it felt like it had exploded. Pain unlike any she had ever felt shot up her arm and spread like a shockwave through her body. She convulsed as every muscle including her heart spasmed. A trap. Stupid, that was why the girl's aggression was suddenly genuine. Should have seen it coming. She had assumed that any boobytrap that could harm her would harm her hostage as well.

That selfsame hostage did not hesitate for a second. The little girl grabbed Gwen's paralyzed arm and screamed as she levered it away. She fell down to the balcony.

Gwen's spasming hand had dropped the crystal, which was now falling back down to the ground below. Her body was already recovering, she would have control again in a second. Then she would need but another second to retrieve her hostage and her knife. The Drakon had already decided that she would take out one of the girl's eyes.

"Venus Love Me Chain!" the echoing words seemed to come from all around, as if the air itself had spoken. Something wrapped around her legs, savagely pulling them together and binding them, making her lose her balance. Before she could even start falling to the ground her legs were pulled violently up from under her.

Gwen tried grabbing for her knife as she went tumbling out over the railing, but it was just out of reach. Her head was still reeling from the twin shock of the pain and the attack that Sailor Venus must have launched from behind her. She had told Iwata to evacuate Minako along with the rest of the noncombatants in the Inner Circle, a tiny part of her mind was screaming, she would kill him for this.

The ground rushed up at her. Gwen was madly spinning her arms,  
trying unsuccessfully to get her legs under her. She was going to come down hard. Her legs were suddenly pulled up again. The chain that bound them came taut and her body snapped around,  
leaving her hanging head down just a meter off the ground. Frantically, she reached out and clawed at the shimmering golden chain that bound her lower legs together. It was sticking to her armour like barnacles, but under her gloved hands it was as frictionless as wet ice. If only she still had her knife. She screamed in frustration. Drakon psychology was utterly unsuited to captivity. She could feel herself losing control. The indignity of being trussed up like this in full sight of her enemy simply fuelled her rage. She thrashed and howled like a skewered vampire. As her dangling body swung and twisted around, she caught glimpses of the Sailor Senshi gathered around her. She wondered why they had not finished her off yet. She glanced up past her bound feet. Tuxedo Kamen was looking down at her, the sobbing Chibi-moon cradled in his arms. Venus was there too, holding the other end of the chain that wrapped around one of the little stone statues on the big balcony railing from which Gwen was hanging.

"Minako!" Gwen hissed, spitting out the traitorous name like a curse.

Sailor Venus' tear-filled eyes shifted away from Gwen. "Sailor Moon... please do it quickly," she pleaded.

Gwen looked back at the gathered Sailor Senshi. Yes, do it quickly, she thought. I don't want to spend another moment in this madhouse of a world. Maybe I really can wake up from this nightmare.

Sailor Moon stepped forward. She had the Ginzuishou again. She held it out before her, and once again it started to levitate over her cupped hands.

"I'm sorry Gwen, but this might hurt a little." The sympathy and the utter sincerity in her voice froze the Drakon's blood more than any amount of malevolence could have. She watched in morbid fascination as her executioner's weapon began to glow brightly.

*****

Lafarge watched and listened as his suit sensors kept trying to tell him that he was still alive. *What the hell do they know*  
he thought.

He lay on the grass exactly where the explosion had thrown him.  
Or at least where he assumed it had thrown him. He had been leaping down from a hole he blew in the outer wall when it came.  
Even with his armour expanded and gone rigid, the shock wave and the crushing debris had taken their toll. Internal bleeding that his enhanced repair systems were just barely keeping under control. A crushed leg now being cradled and held rigid by his armour.

Sailor Moon's warning had come just seconds before he had finished downloading the core memory from the Drakon's network. Waiting those few extra seconds had nearly cost him his life. It may yet cost him that dearly. His gun was in no better shape than he was. If the Snake found him now, he would be meat on the table for it.

His suit told him it was about to administer more pain killers.  
He overrode that with a command. He had to stay alert. He sat up and surveyed his surroundings. The beacon complex was all but levelled. He lay among smouldering debris that had been scattered for tens of meters in all directions. What little was left of the building was burning extravagantly, brightly lighting up the billowing smoke it was sending high into the air. If not for his suit, the heat even at this distance would have been unbearable. He looked towards the villa. By contrast, it was essentially intact. He could see trails of smoke drifting up from several places inside the villa, either from burning debris thrown from the reactor explosion or from the aftermath of he Sailor Senshis' attacks.

With another command he opened the connection to the communicator he had given Sailor Moon. "Lafarge here. Mission accomplished. No contact with the Drakon to report."

There was a slight pause. "Lafarge-san!" the girl's bright voice finally exclaimed. She sounded like a little girl surprised by the unexpected appearance of her favourite uncle. "Thank goodness you're okay! We thought you were dead!"

"Any contact with the Drakon?" Lafarge asked sharply.

"We have her," Sailor Moon said brightly.

Lafarge almost lost his patience, tempted to ask the girl just what the hell that cryptic message was supposed to mean. "Can you confirm the Drakon is dead?" he asked.

"She's not dead, we have her."

Lafarge stood up, suddenly frantic. Good God, had the Snake actually fooled them into thinking that it would surrender? He started making his way toward the villa. All he could manage on his stiffly held leg was a quick walk. "You've got to kill it immediately! No matter how badly injured it is, that thing is too dangerous to try taking it alive!"

"It's okay, Lafarge-san. We have her. Everyone is okay." There was a vacant quality to her voice. All the anxiety he had seen in her earlier this night was gone. She seemed utterly at peace, as if there was nothing wrong in the world.

Lafarge did not like this one bit, but it looked like for whatever reason he wouldn't be getting anything useful out of her. "Tell me where you are," he ordered.

"We're all in the northwest courtyard."

"I'm on my way," Lafarge said, severing the connection. He continued to hobble along, once again overriding the suit's recommendations for more pain killers. Along the way all he encountered was a couple of Suits running madly out of the villa towards the entrance gate. They did not molest him, in fact they seemed anxious to give this limping man in his silvery space suit a wide berth.

He came walking around the wing of the house that formed one of the three walls that enclosed the courtyard. Sailor Jupiter was nearby, apparently waiting for him, and he could see the others gathered further in. At least they had the sense to post a sentry, he thought. Jupiter looked alert but relaxed. She smiled and waved at him. In response he simply withdrew his helmet, which melted into the neck of his suit.

"You don't look so hot," Jupiter said, walking closer to him. "Need any help walking?"

"No, thank you," Lafarge said, waving her away. "Can you tell me what your status is?"

Jupiter smiled, perhaps a little apologetically. "Sailor Moon is a bit... well, tired right now, I guess she wasn't making much sense. We got green lights from all your computer virus things, I assume that's good. What few of the Drakon's men who are still mobile have turned tail and run."

"And the Drakon?"

"I think you'd better go see for yourself."

Lafarge walked further into the courtyard. Sailors Mars and Mercury turned as they noticed him approach. They both smiled and nodded silent greetings to Lafarge. Mercury was holding a bandaged injury, but didn't seem to be in any great pain or having difficulty standing. One other had noticed his approach.  
A young man in black formal wear and an elegant mask. He seemed to have popped straight out of a masquerade ball from a bygone age. An ally they hadn't told me about, Lafarge surmised. Well, that was simply prudent. He couldn't have expected them to trust him with all their secrets. This man also inclined his head in greeting. Sailor Chibi-moon was cradled in his arms. She was asleep or unconscious, but other than an improvised bandage on one arm looked none the worse for wear.

Sailor Moon stood faced away from them. She didn't notice Lafarge's approach until he was right beside her. She smiled at him, her expression a bit vacant and weary. "Lafarge-san, it's good to see you again. Are you okay?"

"I will be," Lafarge said, then directed his attention to what Sailor Moon had been watching. Sailor Venus was crouching down beside the Drakon.

Or at least what Lafarge assumed was the Drakon.

The flexible black body armour fit the woman snugly. But it was immediately apparent that the woman wearing it was not the same tall, sinewy warrior Lafarge had faced. She was only a little taller than Venus herself. The armour must have automatically shrunk to fit around her slender form. Her hair and skin were lighter than he remembered. The face had lost its fox-like predatory look, it was barely recognizable.

The woman was curled up against the wall, whimpering,  
shivering, a look of utter dread on her face.

"Gwen, it's okay, nobody's going to hurt you," Sailor Venus was saying. She was trying to be calm and reassuring, but Lafarge could hear traces of the anguish she must be feeling. "Don't you recognize me? It's Minako." She hesitantly reached out for Gwen, but withdrew her hand quickly when Gwen started wailing as if in mortal fear. Venus backed away a little, and Gwen went back to just whimpering again.

Lafarge turned to face Sailor Moon. "What... what did you do to her?"

Sailor Moon shook her head once, still staring at Gwen. "I'm not sure."

*****

Makoto waited silently with Usagi and Rei in the little park near the hospital. They were all in their different school uniforms. The bright, sunny afternoon weather was doing nothing to relieve the sombre mood. Rei and Usagi sat together on a bench while Makoto paced nervously nearby.

Luna and Artemis came walking from the other side of the park,  
where they had been watching the hospital. "We saw Ami coming back out, she'll be here shortly," Luna said. Nobody said anything in reply. Soon Ami, also in her school uniform,  
approached from the same direction. By silent consent they moved under a nearby tree where they were more likely to get privacy, and sat down on the grass.

"So is there news?" Makoto asked.

Ami nodded. "They're still making inquiries, but it looks like they've pretty much given up trying to identify her. She's being institutionalized as a Jane Doe case. They can't even speculate on her country of origin, so there's no place to send her. She'll stay here for now, but they've got space in a more advanced facility in Yokohama lined up."

"Does it look like they bought your story?" Rei asked.

"Yes. As far as they're concerned, an American named Lafarge and I just found her wandering in the park and realized that she needed help. The police never questioned me again after that first time. I'm sure there's no way they can link her in any way to Gwendolyn Ingolfsson."

"Do they know what's wrong with her yet?" Usagi asked.

Ami sighed. "The doctor I talked to said schizophrenia, but from the way he was talking, he just doesn't know."

"She still hasn't spoken at all, has she?" Makoto asked.

"No. Nobody's been able to get a word out of her. They let me see her. I mean, just through a window. She was just curled up in a corner. She doesn't trust anybody. The nurse was telling me they have trouble getting her to eat. She sniffs at everything like she thinks it's poisoned. She's probably only eating when her hunger becomes painful."

"I wonder if she'll be like that the rest of her life," Makoto asked absently. She saw the pained expression on Usagi's face,  
and cursed herself. Usagi was already blaming herself for much of what happened, she didn't need any more grief. Makoto thought back to that terrible night in Hakone. She had been violently opposed to Sailor Moon trying to heal that monster with the Ginzuishou. But Sailor Moon had been adamant. Whatever else she was, some part of Gwen had been Minako's friend. For Minako's sake, she had to at least try.

When the blinding glow of the Ginzuishou had subsided, they had all been shocked at the physical transformation it had wrought. But it quickly became apparent that whatever it had done to her body was as nothing to what it had done to her mind. It had been a good long time before Gwen would let Venus help her up and take her away. Venus had literally carried her most of the way to the little shrine higher in the mountains, the others following behind. They had watched and listened as Venus tried for hours to get any response from the terrified woman, all to no avail.

"Poor Minako," Usagi said, breaking the silence, giving voice to the thought that was on all their minds.

"Artemis, has she... well, talked with you at all?" Makoto asked.

Artemis shook his head. Somehow he seemed to have aged in the past few days, as if the life were draining out of him. His voice was full of despair. "She keeps telling me she doesn't want to talk about what happened. She won't even talk to her parents. Obviously they don't know the whole story. But they do know that she lost a friend, and that she went through a harrowing experience. As far as the world is concerned,  
Gwendolyn Ingolfsson died in the explosion. Minako's parents are more or less leaving her alone, just like we are. But I'm getting more worried. She just spends hours staring into space.  
Every so often she'll manage to cry herself to sleep."

"I can't even imagine what she's going through," Rei said, not looking at anyone. "She loved Gwen so much. To suddenly find out what she really is, and then..." she looked at Makoto, who had discretely poked her. Makoto shook her head almost imperceptibly. Rei glanced over to Usagi to make sure she was not watching, then nodded at Makoto, an apologetic look on her face. There was no need to talk further about what the Ginzuishou had done to Gwen.

"I think it's more than grief," Artemis said. "Certainly she is grieving over the friend she had - or thought she had. But I think she's just feeling ashamed of what she did while under Gwen's influence."

"But she's got nothing to be ashamed about!" Usagi insisted,  
sounding almost angry. "That woman was practically hypnotizing her! She was doing the same thing to all those other people too!"

"I keep trying to tell her that, but...." Artemis' voice trailed off, and he just shook his head sadly.

"I'm the one who should feel ashamed," Ami said, her eyes cast down, looking utterly miserable. "Right from the beginning I could see what was happening to Minako. I knew that something was terribly wrong, but I was too weak to do anything about it."

"Ami, blaming yourself isn't going to help," Luna said gently. "I think we're all feeling like we let Minako down. I know I've been wasting time agonizing over what I could have done differently, how I could have prevented Minako from falling into the clutches of that...*monster.*" The last word was almost spat out as a curse.

"I know she needs some time on her own, but I just can't sit by while she tears herself apart like this," Makoto said in frustration. "There must be something we can do to help her."

"I have an idea about that," Rei said. She looked around to see that she had everybody's attention. "It's something I've been thinking about for a while now. But I'm going to need your help."

*****

Lafarge walked down a narrow, crooked road in Narimasu, a residential neighbourhood on the outskirts of Tokyo. Away from the main roads, the neighbourhood was only dimly lit by widely spaced streetlights. He was thankful for the global positioning system that allowed him to place himself on a map projected onto his retina. This sprawling monstrosity of a city seemed to be designed perfectly for getting lost in. Locating a specific address in Tokyo seemed to be an art in itself.

As he walked, Lafarge's mind wandered to his conversation with Sailor Moon while they followed Sailor Venus to the shrine. Sailor Moon had tried to explain as best she could what she had done with the Ginzuishou. It had all been some rather incoherent stuff about removing negative karma.

What it had done to the Drakon's body was pretty straightforward. However impossible it might seem, it had turned Ingolfsson into a human. Venus had let Lafarge carefully take a blood sample from Ingolfsson while she slept. The DNA tests done by his nanomachines had shown no traces of the genetic modifications the Draka had used to turn themselves into an immortal master race. His scans had shown no signs of her various cyborg implants either. She was now as human as anyone else on this planet.

What it had done to the Drakon's mind was another matter. She hadn't spoken a word since being transformed to a human. She showed no sign of ever speaking again, so they might not ever know what was going on in her head. The private little Hell she was lost in would likely remain private.

Lafarge found himself wishing he could bring Sailor Moon back to his own timeline and watch her do the same to every single one of the damned Snakes, one at a time.

He was getting close to his destination. He had been here before to get a look at the place, so the route was familiar from this point. He replaced the neighbourhood map with a floor plan of the house he was headed towards.

The data he had downloaded from the Drakon's inner network had told him many useful things. There were detailed records of exactly how she had gotten the seed money for her commercial ventures. Details of highly illegal drug, genetic and nuclear research. Details of links to the Yakuza. He was already leaking carefully selected portions of this to the right people,  
setting things in motion that would soon bring Rising Wind tumbling down like a house of cards.

It had also told Lafarge of a brooder in the eighth month of pregnancy. Of a deliberately nondescript safe house in Narimasu. Of contingency plans to keep the brooder at the safe house until more appropriate accommodations for the coming birth could be arranged.

As Lafarge came up to the wall that surrounded the yard, he morphed his clothes into body armour and went through the now automatic routine of a weapons check. Just one final loose end to tie up, he thought sadly.

*****

"Usagi, are you sure we're on the right path?" Minako asked,  
becoming more than a little irritated. "We've been climbing this mountain for almost an hour."

"Not to worry, not to worry!" Usagi said brightly, waving off her friend's concern. "It's just a little farther."

"That's what you said twenty minutes ago. It's getting dark already."

"Hey, I've been here before, remember? We'll be there in plenty of time. Did you want to stop and rest?"

"No, Usagi, I just want to get there and collapse." Her backpack seemed to have gained weight in the past little while.

"Trust me, it will be worth the trip. You'll love it!"

"Well, you weren't kidding about Rei finding a private hot spring that was out of the way. That bus driver couldn't believe that we actually wanted to be dropped off here."

Usagi, who was a few paces ahead, suddenly squealed and started running up the path. "This is it! I'm sure of it!" She ran up the slope to where it levelled off a few meters ahead. She turned around and threw her arms up. "Tah-daaah!"

Minako took the slope more sedately, and stopped beside Usagi to look at the clearing the wooded path had opened up to. She couldn't decide if she was looking at a shrine or a big cabin. It was a rather odd looking old wood building built right up against a cliff face. It did seem right at home in this peaceful little glade.

At another time, she might have been delighted to find this quaint little getaway. Right now, Minako simply felt obliged to go through the motions of humouring her friend. "You're right,  
it's a very nice place," she said, trying to show some enthusiasm.

They walked up the front steps and Usagi slid aside the heavy wood and rice paper panel. The little room beyond was lit by just a single brass kerosene lamp. Once the sun set, this place was going to get dark in a hurry. The smell was a little musty but not at all unpleasant. The girls divested themselves of their shoes, jackets and backpacks. There were other packs and three more sets of shoes already here. The others were already here, as Usagi had said they would be.

They went a little ways down the corridor, and Usagi slid open a wood panel to the left. "You can get changed in here and meet us in the big room in back okay?"

"Aren't you getting changed too?" Minako asked.

"I just want to check how dinner is coming first! I saw smoke coming out the chimney, I'll bet Mako-chan is cooking up a storm!"

Minako glanced into the room. It was a small bathing room with a little wooden tub, a slightly smaller and older version of the one she had seen in Hikawa Shrine. There was a light cotton yukata laid out for her. Like the entrance and the short hallway, it was lit by a single brass kerosene lamp.

"You can just leave your clothes in there for now, we'll show you where to put them later. See you soon!"

"Okay." Minako entered the room and slid the door closed. She sighed heavily, and started taking her jeans off. *What am I doing here?* she asked herself. She had only agreed to come because Usagi kept pestering her and Minako didn't have the energy to argue with her. She had really been dreading this outing. Normally, a weekend in a mountain hot springs with her friends would be about the closest thing to Heaven she could imagine. But now...

There was nothing complicated about it. She just felt mortally ashamed of what she had done, how she had treated everybody,  
what she had put them through. They all tried to act like it was okay, like everything was forgiven. She wanted so much to believe that it could be that simple. But every time she looked at any one of her friends, she would remember. Just as she did that night while the Ginzuishou was turned on Gwen. It had been like streams of the crystal's energy flowing up the golden chain, through Minako's hands, perfusing her body. It had made her remember everything that had happened since the day she met Gwen. She had watched it all pass across her mind's eye like a film, like the biography of some stranger. A stranger who had turned on her friends, betrayed them.

She had gotten over Gwen's... death. Minako could only think of her as being dead. But knowing that she had fallen under the spell of the monster that lay behind that beautiful face, Minako felt like she had been forever poisoned. Tainted.

She listlessly slipped into the light cotton yukata. She felt a slight draft. She hoped their sleeping quarters were going to be less drafty, this place would probably get cold at night.

She slid open the door, shuffled into the slippers she had left in the corridor, and walked the way Usagi had indicated. The doors she had seen at the end of the corridor were now open, but in their place was what she could only describe as a tapestry draped over the opening. Presumably it had been behind the doors. In the fading twilight filtering in and the dim lamp light, the detail was hard to see, but it looked like a black ink painting of two beasts in mortal combat. One up high to the right looked vaguely like a griffin. It was surrounded with streaks of ink that seemed to represent radiating light. To the lower left was a hideous looking ogre surrounded by what might be dark mist. It's stylized face showed a combination of fear and defiance. The style of the whole thing was unlike anything Minako had ever seen. It was on light cotton that was split down the middle, making it into a sort of curtain. Suddenly curious as to what the room beyond might look like, Minako drew aside one side of the curtain and stepped through.

Two things about the big room astonished her right away. First, the far wall was not a wall at all, it was simply the cliff face. Second, it was lit by dozens of the little brass kerosene lamps hanging all over the place.

The other walls were unornamented wood. High on these walls were rice paper panels that were now darkened by the approaching night. To the left was an altar that seemed to be a strange variation of the altar at Hikawa Shrine, complete with the fire pit, the round mirror at the centre of the altar and the big drum off to the side. The floor was covered with bamboo mats. Towards the right was a long table with several thin cushions placed around it. There were a set of cabinets along that wall as well. In the middle of the cliff wall was another painting,  
similar to the one she had just passed through. Wooden beams crossed overhead under a dark, vaulted ceiling. Up high near the ceiling at each corner there was bolted a strange device that looked like an oversized barometer with liquid half filling tubes that looped around and through a heavy metal frame. The liquid looked slightly phosphorescent.

The details she noticed later. What caught her eye was Rei,  
Usagi, Makoto and Ami all sitting in a row in the middle of the room as if waiting for her. They were all dressed in red and white shrine maiden robes.

"Welcome, Minako," Rei said in a way that was both formal and friendly. She gestured to a spot in front of her. "Won't you come sit with us?"

Minako walked slowly into the room, looking all around her, a little bewildered. "Rei, what is this place?" she asked.

"It is a temple of sorts. It belongs to an order that I've worked with in the past. They have agreed to let us use it for this night. Please, won't you sit down?" She once again indicated a place on the floor in front of her.

Minako walked closer and lowered herself to the floor, still looking around the strange room. "I've never seen anything like this. I thought this was supposed to be a hot springs."

"It is, but it's a little different." Minako was a little startled when Rei suddenly slid closer, reached out and took both of Minako's hands in her own. Rei's expression softened,  
losing the slightly stiff formality she had greeted Minako with.  
When she spoke, it was no longer as a shrine maiden but as a friend. "Minako, I'd like to tell you a bit about the first time I came here, seven years ago. It was shortly after the Drakon had destroyed the temple in Hakone. I was still in shock over what had happened. I was in desperate need of help. Shrine maidens from the order brought me here along with some of the other young girls who had escaped from the temple. With them we performed a cleansing ritual intended to help us put that tragedy in the past and begin anew. I'm not sure whether it really did that. But it did help to calm my spirit, and it did help give me the courage I needed to start the long healing process.

"I have been spending some time recently instructing Usagi,  
Makoto and Ami in a simplified version of the ritual. Last week, Usagi brought Chibi-usa here just as she brought you today. Chibi-usa has been having nightmares about her encounter with the Drakon, just as I was having seven years ago. We explained how we hoped to help her, and she agreed to go through the ritual. It seems to have helped her. At least Usagi thinks so.

"Minako, we've all noticed how depressed you've been since we rescued you from the Drakon. We've been trying to think of how we could help. If you'll let us, we'd like to guide you through the same cleansing ritual. It helped me, and I think it might help you too." Still gently holding Minako's hands, she sat calmly awaiting a reply.

Minako was starting to feel nervous. "What sort of ritual is it?"

"Minako, for this to be any use, you have to trust us, put yourself in our hands. If you don't feel comfortable about this, then we'll just forget about it, have dinner together and go soak in the hot springs for a bit. It's up to you."

Minako glanced at the other three girls. Usagi winked at her. Ami nodded encouragingly. Makoto simply had a pleasant look of calm acceptance, as if to emphasize that she would accept whatever Minako decided. Minako looked back at Rei, who was smiling warmly. She nodded. "Okay. What am I supposed to do?"

"Just relax and follow our lead. We will guide you." Rei stood up and helped Minako to her feet. She guided Minako a little ways towards the altar and sat her down before it. She then walked up to the round mirror that was the centrepiece of the strange altar, knelt before it and offered a prayer. It was in archaic Japanese, Minako could barely understand it. But somehow the meaning was clear. It was a humble request for aid in healing the battle scars of those who stood against the darkness. Rei reached for something in front of her. There was a gentle jingling sound. She stood and held her arms straight out at her sides. In each hand was an elaborate set of little bells. Like everything else here, they vaguely resembled things Minako had seen many times at Hikawa and other shrines, but with subtle differences. It was like she was in the temple of an ancient religious sect that had secretly gone off in its own direction centuries ago.

Makoto had moved to sit beside the big drum that was set on its side to one side of the altar. At some unseen signal from Rei,  
she took up the big, thick drumstick that sat before her, swung it back and delivered a precise blow to the drum. It was almost deafening, made it feel like the mountain itself was shaking. This was Rei's signal to begin her dance. Minako had seen Rei do this dance at Hikawa and elsewhere. She had always found it mesmerizing. The delicate, precise movements of the dance and the gentle tinkling of the hand bells formed a lovely juxtaposition to the beat of the great drum, like a butterfly effortlessly flittering through a storm. Minako sat utterly captivated. At length, Rei bowed before the alter once more,  
indicating she was finished. Minako had lost track of time, but was sure the dance had gone on longer than what was normal.

After a few moments of stillness, Rei turned, walked up to Minako and helped her up again. She led Minako to the tapestry that was draped across a part of the cliff face. Usagi and Ami were seated at each side of the entrance. Without a word, they rose, took each half of the cloth at the point where it was split down the middle and drew it aside. Minako was startled to see that there was an entrance to a tunnel behind it. As Rei led Minako towards it, Usagi took a lamp off one of the hooks that was embedded in the stone and handed it to her. Rei then doffed her slippers and shuffled into one of the sets of cogs that were lined up just inside the entrance. Ami took another lamp off its hook and held it out to Minako. She took it, and followed Rei's example. The air in the narrow tunnel was very damp. Behind her she heard at least one of the other girls also getting into a pair of cogs. Rei led them slowly down the tunnel, which descended gently. It made a few twists and turns.  
The floor was always flat, but in places the walls and ceilings were very rough, as if the ancient tunnellers had taken advantage of natural fissures wherever they could. At one point the tunnel branched left and right. Rei led them to the left,  
and in just a minute or so it opened up into a dark cave.

Just in front of them, barely visible in the lamplight, were two big flat rocks, just a little above the cave floor. On top of each was what Minako would describe as a big wooden ladle. Between the rocks the cave floor dipped down and disappeared under inky still water. The water extended out around and beyond the two rocks. The rest of the cave was in utter darkness, it might as well have gone on forever.

"This is the place of cleansing," Rei said in a low voice that reverberated down the cave and back. "The water is cold, but through it you will find warmth."

Usagi and Ami walked past them and up onto each of the rocks. They set down their lamps and knelt facing each other over the water. Rei took Minako's lamp and set it down nearby with her own. She took a white towel from a little stone shelf where it had been lying. She went behind Minako and wrapped her hair in the towel, curling it up over Minako's head. She reached around Minako's waist, undid her sash, and gently eased the yukata off Minako's shoulders. Seeing what Rei intended, Minako lowered her arms and let Rei remove the robe. "Now, go stand between your friends and face me," Rei said, giving Minako an encouraging squeeze on the shoulder.

With some trepidation, Minako walked up to the water, doffed her cogs, and stepped in. She winced. As she expected, it was frigid. She gingerly made her way out between the two rocks. By the time she was between Usagi and Ami, it was up to her waist. She turned to face Rei, wrapping her arms around herself and shivering. Rei knelt down, closed her eyes, and with hands clasped before her once again spoke the ancient prayer asking to help give strength to the warriors who did battle with the darkness. As she did, Ami and Usagi took up the big ladles,  
scooped up the inky water and poured it down over Minako's back and shoulders. She cringed, shivering uncontrollably. But as the prayer continued and her body adjusted to the cold, Minako found herself relaxing. She closed her eyes, let her hands drift down under the water, accepting whatever it had to give.

The prayer ended. Minako opened her eyes to see Rei standing before her. "Are you ready to go back with us, Minako?" Rei asked.

Minako nodded. "Yes," she breathed.

Minako emerged from the water. Her body was numb. Rei was waiting with another white towel. She moved behind Minako and started to gently towel her dry. Usagi and Ami also took small towels from the shelf, and started doing likewise. Soon Minako was essentially dry, but still utterly numb. "I... I'm not sure I can walk yet," she said, starting to shiver again.

"Then this is where we warm you up!" Usagi said cheerily. "Group hug!" She wrapped her arms around Minako's neck and held her close.

Minako could hear Rei sighing heavily. "Interesting improvisation, Usagi," she said indulgently. She came up beside Minako and wrapped her arms around the girl's waist. Ami did likewise. Minako returned Usagi's embrace, content to just absorb physical and spiritual warmth from her friends. When Minako stopped shivering, Rei went to retrieve her yukata and helped her put it on and set her hair down. They all picked up their lanterns, and Rei led them back up the tunnel. Minako's body felt almost weightless, much like it felt right after transforming into Sailor Venus. She almost felt like running up the tunnel.

"We're back!" Rei called as they approached the entrance. As she took off her cogs, Makoto pulled aside one half of the tapestry from the other side. Rei held the other half open for Minako. She entered the big room. Something smelled good. She looked over to her left, and saw that the table was covered with an assortment of enamel pots and boxes. Five places had been set for dinner. It looked like it had taken hours to set up. Had they been down there that long?

Makoto grinned at her. "Don't look too impressed, Rei and Usagi helped me prepare most of it ahead of time, I just finished setting it out." She took Minako's arm and led her to the place of honour at the end of the table. They all sat down,  
and Rei offered a brief prayer in hopes that the food and drink would sustain the body and soul of the warrior it had been prepared for.

The dinner went on a long time. There were more dishes than Minako could count, but all of them were familiar in some way. She ended up being hand-fed much of her dinner by Makoto, who seemed to want her to sample everything in just the right amount and just the right order. Each dish was something they had all eaten together before. As Minako tried each one, this seemed to be a cue for one or another of the girls to reminisce about some happy memory that had suddenly been awakened. They talked about trips together to the sea and the mountains, previous dinners together celebrating exams passed and battles won, little street carnivals attended together. Each dish was the doorway to a shared memory. As time passed, Minako quite involuntarily found herself doing more and more of the talking.

At length, Ami and Rei went to one of the cupboards against the wall and brought out what looked like an oversized futon. They rolled it out on the bamboo floor nearby. When they were done,  
Makoto helped Minako up and guided her over to it. "Am I going to sleep on this?" Minako asked.

"Not quite yet," Makoto said. "For now, just relax." Once again Minako had her yukata removed for her. Makoto gently guided her down on her stomach on top of the fluffy white expanse of the big quilt. Her four friends knelt beside her,  
and without a word they began massaging the muscles in her lower arms and legs. Minako sighed contentedly, feeling like she was floating on air. The gentle full body massage went on for a while, the girls alternately taking turns working the tension out of her body. Minako closed her eyes and felt herself drifting away. She came awake when two sets of hands slowly lifted her into a sitting position. She was helped into her pyjamas, almost like a baby being prepared for bed. It seemed silly, but Minako found herself thoroughly enjoying the attention. She noticed that while she had been lying in her dreamlike state, somebody had doused most of the lamps in the big room and set up four more futons. They were normal sized ones, arranged one along each side of the big square quilt on which she lay. Minako lay down again, resting her head on a pillow that had been brought, and another big quilt was laid over her.

Rei knelt beside her. "Now, sleep peacefully, knowing that your friends will be all around you, protecting you. No nightmares can disturb you here, we'll see to that." She bent down and gave Minako a gentle kiss. "Good night, Minako." She got up, walked over to one of the futons, and started changing out of her robe.

Makoto knelt down beside her, leaned over her and smiled. "It's good to have you back, Minako. I've missed you." She bent down and kissed her. "Good night."

Ami came next. "Sweet dreams, Minako." She bent down, brought her lips up close to Minako's ear. "I love you, Minako-chan," she whispered. Ami kissed her and went to her own bed.

Usagi knelt down above Minako's head, bent over and gently cradled Minako's head in her hands. "Now, close your eyes and go to sleep. If any nightmares try to come, we'll chase them away for you." Minako did as she was told and got a playful little peck on the nose. "Good night. I'll try not to snore,  
okay?" She could hear Usagi get up and walk over to her own futon. It was the last thing she heard before quickly falling into a dreamless slumber.

*****

When she awoke, it took Minako a few seconds to remember where she was. The big room was brightened somewhat by early morning light filtering in through the panels far above. She sat up and looked around her. Rei and Makoto were still sleeping peacefully under their quilts. Usagi had somehow managed to roll right off her futon and gotten tangled up in her quilt. Minako smiled. The position she had ended up in looked decidedly uncomfortable. But she was contentedly sawing wood.

Ami was sitting up on her futon, wrapped in her quilt, watching Minako. When she saw that Minako had spotted her she smiled and put a finger to her lips. With the same hand she beckoned. Minako quietly got to her feet and shivered. The room had gotten considerably colder overnight. She padded softly over towards Ami. As she approached, Ami opened up her quilt and wrapped half of it around Minako's shoulders. It was nice and toasty. Ami gently guided her to the door leading out to the hallway. They donned slippers and passed through the curtain together. Ami led her to another curtain on the left and they passed through that. It was a fairly large kitchen. The facilities were will maintained, but were what could charitably be called "quaint." The centrepiece was a massive black iron stove. She could hear a wood fire gently crackling within it. Somebody must have been maintaining it all night, for the kitchen was decidedly warmer than the rest of the building.

Ami unwrapped the quilt from around them, folded it and laid it over one of the chairs that surrounded a nearby table. She walked back and embraced Minako. "Good morning, Minako," she said softly.

"Good morning, Ami-chan."

Ami stepped back, held Minako's hands in her own. "Did you sleep well?"

"Like a baby. Ami, you weren't watching over me all night,  
were you?"

"No, I just got the last shift, that's all. We just wanted to make sure you didn't have any nightmares." She suddenly grinned. "If it looked like you were, Rei was fully intending to take you for another soaking." Her face suddenly filled with concern. She reached out and wiped away a tear that crept down Minako's cheek. "Minako, what's wrong?"

Minako couldn't keep her voice from being husky. "Ami, I don't know how I can thank you. All of you. For what you've done. I feel like I have a new lease on life. How can I ever repay you?"

Ami went to embrace her friend again. "Having you back is thanks enough. For all of us. Just brighten our lives like you always have since you came among us. How could we ask for more?"

They stood like that for a while. Then Ami gave her a kiss and smiled at her. "Sit down and I'll put on some water for tea,  
okay?"

Minako sat down at the table and watched Ami busy herself with the water pump. "Did you really cook that dinner in here?" she asked.

"Most of it. We prepared ahead of time whatever we could."

"That must have been a real challenge, even for Mako-chan,"  
Minako said with wonder, looking around at the primitive facilities.

"I guess you could say it was her finest hour."

"How did you lug all that stuff up here? I was exhausted just carrying my little backpack up the slope!"

"It looks like Rei has some clout with the owners of this temple. They had a lot of the stuff ready and waiting for us before we even got here."

"Who are they, anyway?" Minako asked, genuinely curious.

Ami went to put a kettle on top of the stove, then walked over to join Minako at the table. "Rei was a bit vague. It's an ancient order of mystics, the same ones who owned the temple in Hakone. They're supposed to operate all over the world, though wherever they are they adopt the forms of the local religions. Or something like that. They don't even have a name, or at least not one they tell anyone about."

"It's a lovely place, but really strange. I mean, what were those weird things up on the walls in the big room, for instance?"

"Not even Rei knows that. Some sort of detectors of paranormal activity. Rei made it sound sort of like sorcery. They just told her not to touch the things."

"Makoto mentioned there really are hot springs here..." Minako began suggestively.

"There are. Down the tunnel to the right."

"You mean, they're in a cave?" Minako asked in astonishment.

"That's right. You can't see much with just the lamplight of course, but the water is wonderful. We went there last week when we brought Chibi-usa here."

"That sounds so cool! Can we do that today before we leave?"

"Of course, it would be a shame not to. This time, my cut is healed enough that I'll be able to go into the water myself." She seemed to immediately notice Minako's reaction to this reminder of that terrible night. She put her hand over Minako's on the table. "I'm sorry, that was thoughtless of me. But look, it really has healed completely." She stood up and raised up the hem of her nightgown, exposing her right side. "See? It's just a little red now, that's all. That odd bandage Lafarge put on really seems to have helped, my skin just absorbed it. I didn't need any stitches at all."

"That's good," Minako said tonelessly. She was hoping Ami would interpret her discomfort as guilt over the wound Ami had received while trying to rescue her.

But it looked like Ami guessed the real problem. She sat down again, waited until Minako could meet her gaze again. "Minako,  
you're my dear friend. There is no reason for you to ever feel uncomfortable around me. I need to know that you believe that."

Minako nodded. "I do believe that, Ami. But I just feel so awful about what I did. It was almost as if I had become like..."

"No," Ami said sternly. "You are nothing at all like Gwendolyn. You know that."

Minako shook her head sadly. "But the way I manipulated you..."

"Minako, we would never have become lovers unless I wanted it too."

Minako sighed. She had been dreading this moment. "I guess you're right. I just want you to know how sorry I am about the way I messed things up. Ami, I want to be completely honest with you, I owe at least that much to you. I wasn't lying about my feelings towards you. I still feel the same way. But if you think it's best for us to just be friends, I can accept that."

"Yes, I think that would be best."

Minako nodded. "I understand."

"For now."

Ami smiled at Minako's puzzlement. "Minako, if you'll agree, I think we should make a promise to ourselves. Sometime when memories of recent events have become less painful, when we've both had some time to think and when we feel that we're ready, I think that we should find some nice, quiet place where we can have some privacy. Then, I think we should have a good long talk about this." She held out her little finger. "Promise?"

There could be only one response. "Okay, promise." They linked fingers, sealing the bond in the traditional manner.

Epilogue

Lafarge sat in his Tokyo apartment, sipping tea and reading the morning paper. The front page was chronicling the death throes of the Rising Wind organization. It was crumbling under the weight of scandals both large and small, all of which seemed to have materialized in the weeks following the destruction of their Hakone facility. The irregularities surrounding that event alone would have been enough to send most of the principle players in the company to jail. But it was looking more and more like the illegal nuclear power research was just the tip of the iceberg. The Japanese government, delighted at a diversion from its own litany of scandals, was gleefully pursuing the miscreant organization with an air of righteous indignation.

True to form, the tabloid press were full of improbable stories about the late Ingolfsson. Where there were no facts,  
imagination could run wild. Lafarge was particularly baffled by an interview with a former security guard linking her to a secret Nazi base on the far side of the moon, among other things.

Without warning, Sailor Venus suddenly appeared on his balcony,  
dropping down from the sky like a falling angel. He nearly dropped his paper. *Damn, how the hell do they do that,* he wondered.

She smiled and waved. As he got up to go unlatch the sliding window, he noticed that she had a white cat perched on her shoulder. It didn't seem to be the least perturbed about having just dropped onto a twentieth story balcony.

"Good morning, Lafarge-san," she said brightly as he slid the door open. "I'm sorry for barging in, but I was wondering if you have some time to talk."

"Of course. Please come in." He stood aside as she let herself into the little living room.

"This is a really nice place," Venus said casually, looking around. "Just like Mercury said."

Sailor Mercury had been here a couple of times over the past few weeks, as they exchanged data on Ingolfsson's crumbling organization. Her help had been invaluable, both in hunting down its remnants and in suggesting to who and in what way to pass on the information. Police and government agencies all over were busy patting themselves on the back for how clever they had been in uncovering the various unsavory activities of Rising Wind.

"Did she send you here for something?" Lafarge asked. He hadn't been dealing with the other Sailor Senshi since the destruction of the beacon, he was wondering why Venus had suddenly showed up.

"Actually, she doesn't know I'm here. None of the others do. I'm sort of here on personal business."

Lafarge tensed up. He gathered from what little Mercury had told him that Venus was very upset over what had happened to Gwen. He suddenly had the notion that she blamed him for what happened and was here to pursue a personal vendetta.

Venus seemed to notice his distress. She smiled reassuringly. She picked up her cat and put it on the table. It obediently sat down. She put her hand to the ribbon at her breast and closed her eyes. Almost immediately, her whole body was surrounded by a swirling mass of shimmering translucent orange ribbons. Her body seemed to melt into the ribbons, become one with them, ripple and swirl like liquid. Just as abruptly, the mesmerizing light show ended. A young girl in a blue and white school uniform stood before him. It took a second for Lafarge to decide that it was still the same person.

Lafarge became aware of how silly he must look, staring at her with his mouth wide open. "Sailor Venus...?" he asked hesitantly.

"My real name is Aino Minako. I'm a middle school student from Juban. This is my cat Artemis. I'm sorry if I startled you,  
but I just wanted to talk a bit. May I sit down?"

"Of course," Lafarge said. He was getting the same feeling of unreality he had felt upon first meeting the Sailor Senshi. He had almost started thinking of them as some sort of elemental force in this mad universe, like goddesses who descended upon the world when they were needed. Seeing this pretty young schoolgirl, knowing who and what she really was, it was almost enough to induce vertigo.

Minako sat, suddenly looking very solemn. "Lafarge-san, I want to tell you how sorry I am for the way I acted. If I had listened to my friends the way I should have, if I had opened my eyes to what Gwen really was, I never would have attacked you. Gwen's plans would have been stopped sooner, and many lives might have been saved."

Lafarge felt very awkward. "Minako, I don't think you have anything to apologize for. I am... very much aware of how the Draka manipulate people. I know that it wasn't your fault."

Minako smiled shyly. "Thank you, Lafarge-san. I wonder, may I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead."

"While at the villa I met a woman called Reiko. She was bearing Gwen's clone. Mercury doesn't seem to know anything about her, not even the name. I assume you must have deleted her from the data you passed to Mercury."

Lafarge had been wondering if this would come up. He took a deep breath. "Minako..."

"I don't need to know," Minako said flatly. "But as a Sailor Senshi I am duty bound to ask you at least one question. Do you have any reason to believe that there are or will be any more clones of Gwen that could become a threat?"

Lafarge shook his head slowly. "No. There is no further threat. I'm sure of that."

"Then I have just one more question."

"Yes?"

She gave him that same shy, cheerful smile. "Could I have some of that tea?"

*****

Minako sipped at her tea as she listened to Lafarge describe his family home in the United States of Samothracia, on a planet orbiting a different Alpha Centauri in a different universe. Even four hundred years after the colony had been founded it was much more sparsely populated than the Earth in his timeline,  
never mind this Earth. Settlements were mostly small and widely scattered. Industry was mostly done in orbit. He made it all sound like a Norman Rockwell painting with just a few spaceships flying overhead. He seemed to love talking about it, and Minako was content to listen. She noticed that Artemis, down on the kitchen floor with the saucer of milk Lafarge had put out for him, was also discretely listening. Even for jaded defenders against the darkness, hearing about a whole new world was no small thing.

"So when do you think you'll be going home?" Minako asked him.

"It looks like there is nothing more going on here that will require my direct intervention, so most likely I'll be going back to America in a couple of weeks or so."

Minako giggled. "No, I mean back to your real home, your family."

Lafarge looked puzzled. Then realization came, and with it a sad smile. "I'm afraid I won't be going back."

Minako frowned. "But why not? Isn't your mission done? I thought you said there's no chance of the Draka finding this Earth again."

"There isn't, or at least not unless we do something to draw their attention here. To bring me back home, my people would have to send over a ship big enough to generate its own molehole and get back. The Draka could detect that easily, it would draw them here more effectively than the beacon would."

Minako shook her head in disbelief. "You always knew you couldn't go back."

"It had to be a one-way mission, yes."

"Oh, Lafarge-san..." Minako felt utterly miserable. "I'm so sorry. I should have realized... and here I went asking you all about your home... I'm sorry, I really stuck my foot in it,  
didn't I?"

"I don't mind talking about it at all," Lafarge reassured her. "You shouldn't feel bad, I'm actually very lucky. I had originally volunteered for a mission on the Earth in our timeline. If I had gone on that mission instead, my lifetime there would have been measured in days, not years. If you want to feel sorry for somebody, then feel for my people who are still fighting the Draka. That fight has gone on for half a millennium. Unless my people can break the stalemate somehow,  
wipe them out once and for all, it will probably go on forever."

Minako thought the time had come for what she had really come here to ask. "Lafarge-san, to go on your mission, you had to study a lot about the Draka, right?"

Lafarge frowned. He suddenly seemed to be almost defensive,  
picking his words carefully. "Minako, I can understand why you would be curious about them. You're probably trying to understand what happened, why you and so many people could have been taken in by such a creature. Yes, I did have to study the Draka. In great detail. One thing I can tell you for certain:  
unless you ever need to fight them again, the less you know about them the better."

"I understand. You don't have to answer, but there is one thing I really want to ask. I have seen Sailor Moon use the Ginzuishou to perform miracles. I understand what it does even less than she does, but one thing I do know: it is incapable of performing an act of evil. I guess what I'm trying to understand... what we are all trying to understand... is why Gwen ended up the way she did."

Lafarge thought about this for some time. Minako just waited silently. At length, Lafarge began to speak in a soft tone. "Before I even entered the service, I was studying the early history of the Draka. I wanted to understand what it was that had been allowed to drive my ancestors from their home. One thing kept coming up again and again. It was something they would always say to each other, back in the twentieth century when they were just becoming a world power. They would say it in public and private. It was like an obsession, they would recite it like a mantra: 'we are few, and nobody loves us.' I think that pretty much sums up the way the Draka dealt with the world. It was like the ultimate expression of the paranoid position. Eat or be eaten. From that point on, the story of the Draka became the story of a stomach. They were so afraid of becoming prey, the only answer they could come up with was to become predators. That was what shaped their destiny and their character. Once they started changing themselves genetically, I think they lost whatever remnants of free will they had left. They simply gave in to their all-consuming, insatiable hunger. I'm not sure whether the Homo Drakensis of my time even have a consciousness the way we understand it. At best maybe it's an animal consciousness that drives their aggression. The rest is just programming.

"Sailor Moon said that the Ginzuishou removes negative karma. I think that if you remove all the negative karma from a Drakensis, all the aggression, the hunger, the territoriality,  
the ruthlessness, all you've got left is that original mantra. I think all that's left in Ingolfsson's mind is: 'I am alone,  
and nobody loves me'."

Lafarge suddenly seemed to regret how much he'd said. "I'm sorry Minako, that probably doesn't help you much."

Minako shook her head, indicating the contrary. "No, I think it does help a bit. At least I understand a little better. Thank you." Having gotten her answer, her thoughts went to another matter. "But I still am sorry to hear that you can't go home. I hope I'm not prying, but... well, do you have any idea what you'll be doing from now on?"

"Well, I can give you an idea of what I *won't* be doing. I have to be careful to change the flow of events in this timeline as little as possible. Any major changes would send ripples visible in other timelines, and might even risk drawing the attention of the Draka in my timeline. So I have to keep a low profile. I won't be patenting Samothracian technology or going into politics or doing anything else that might cause major changes in history." He seemed about to say something else, and hesitated.

"It's okay if you don't want to say any more, I understand you probably need time to think," Minako said quickly.

"No, it's not really that. It's something that's rather hard to explain. I've been analyzing the actions Ingolfsson has taken since she arrived here. In many respects she was behaving irrationally. She was very careless about many things,  
especially about hiding her tracks, masking her activities. More so than could be explained by just plain hubris. I've also been trying to analyze my own actions objectively. In retrospect I was also behaving irrationally. My single-minded search for the Drakon in America let her do pretty much what she pleased over here. I should have been able to locate her years earlier. I can come up with all sorts or rationalizations for all this. We already know the laws of physics are subtly different here. Maybe the Drakon's brain and my own are being subtly affected by that, down at a subatomic level. But that would just be a rationalization. The truth is, ever since I arrived here, I have never been able to shake the feeling that I just don't belong here. I thought it was just this incredible alternate world with its two hundred countries and its five billion people and no trace of my ancestral enemy. But it's more fundamental than that. I just have the feeling that I shouldn't try to do anything ambitious in this world. It probably wouldn't work out anything like the way I intend."

He seemed to become aware of just how sad this talk was making Minako. As if to make amends, he suddenly became cheerful. Surprisingly, it sounded genuine. "Well, anyway that's the excuse I'm using. I told you that I studied history, I also studied the early history of my own homeland. It's always been my dream to be able to return to America and wander through the places where that history took place. I never really thought it would be possible in my lifetime, but it looks like I'll get my wish after all. It's not quite the America of my history, but I recognized enough of my home there to make me want to go back,  
get a better look."

Minako felt much better hearing this. "Lafarge-san, this world owes you so much, I really hope you can manage to at least find a little happiness here."

Lafarge laughed. "I'm sorry, I know you meant that, and I thank you. The reason that's funny is that very soon after dropping down into this world I decided this must be the closest thing to paradise I could imagine. As far as I could see the worst thing this century had faced was Nazi Germany, which was mopped up in a mere decade or so. Our war with the Draka pretty much defined us, made us what we are. On this world, you actually are free to define yourselves, to make yourselves whatever you want. If I can't find happiness here, then I have nobody to blame but myself."

Lafarge's expression suddenly sobered. "But if I am to believe the stories that you and the other Sailor Senshi have told me,  
this world has it's share of monsters as well."

Minako winked. "You just leave them to us, okay? That's what we're here for!"

Lafarge chuckled. "That will take some getting used to. Defending my world takes a fleet of warships and an army of cyborg warriors. You seem to manage defending this world with just a few young valkyries."

Minako giggled. "We've been called a lot of things, but I don't think anyone's called us that before. Now that I think of it, Gwen called us something odd too. As soon as she understood that Mercury and I were fellow warriors, she kept saying that we were like Spartans. She would never explain that. Do you have any idea what she was talking about?"

Minako would swear that Lafarge was actually blushing a bit. "Uh... I understand Sailor Mars is the history buff in your group, I think I'll let her field that one."

Minako raised an eyebrow. "Okay, I'll ask her then." She got the impression that could end up being rather interesting. She stood up. "I should probably get going. I have cram school coming up in a little while." She grinned at Lafarge's surprise. "Yes, in between saving the world from monsters and hanging around with my friends, I do try to maintain at least halfway decent grades."

"Sounds like you have no trouble keeping yourself busy. Shall I open the window for you?" he said, gesturing towards the glass door.

"Actually, I'll be going out the door and taking the subway back, it's easier than jumping over rooftops. I only arrived as Sailor Venus so that you'd recognize me!"

"A good thing, too. I'd never have placed you."

"Oh, that comes in handy, believe me," Minako said. "Artemis!"  
she called. The white cat ran to her and leaped up into her outstretched arms. He suddenly turned to face her and winked, a move that was not visible to Lafarge. Minako stiffened. *Oh no. You wouldn't.*

Artemis turned to face Lafarge. "Thank you for everything,  
Lafarge-san, especially for helping to rescue our delinquent Sailor Senshi here. For all her faults, she's very precious to us, I'm very much in your debt."

Lafarge's expression was difficult to read. If Minako had to pick a word to describe it, the word would probably be disappointment. It was as if this world had been throwing him curve balls since he got here, and just when he thought he had it all figured out, he gets this coming out of the blue.

It was a few moments before Lafarge could work up the nerve to actually address a talking cat. "Artemis, do you have any idea how many talking cats there are in this world?"

"I'm pretty sure there are only two," Artemis answered.

"That's good to hear. Uh... no offense."

"None taken."

Minako went to the entrance hallway and put on the shoes she had placed there soon after transforming from Sailor Venus. She looked up at Lafarge, who was watching her. "Lafarge-san,  
before I met up with the other Sailor Senshi, Artemis and I were operating alone for some time. I know what it's like to have a secret - a *big* secret - that you can't share with anyone. I guess what I'm saying is, if you ever just want to talk, look me up okay?"

"Thank you, Minako. I wish I could reciprocate and say I could help you out in your coming battles, but..."

"Like I said," Minako interrupted, "you can leave that part to us! Consider yourself on vacation." She bowed. "Thank you again for everything. Keep in touch, okay?"

"You too."

They said their goodbyes, and Minako turned to walk down the corridor. Halfway to the elevator she gave Artemis a playful bat on the head. "I don't believe you! Why didn't you tell me you were going to do that?"

"Well, you revealed your identity to him, didn't you?"

"But I told you I was going to do that!"

"In for a penny, in for a pound," Artemis said in English,  
since the idiom did not translate well.

"You might have given the poor man a heart attack, just talking out of the blue like that."

"I thought he had a mechanical heart or something."

Minako sighed. She knew when it was time to quit. The elevator came, and she stepped in. "I hope he'll do okay. He really was nice about everything. I mean, I nearly killed him,  
and he just doesn't hold a grudge or anything. He's really so sweet."

"Uh-huh."

Minako glared at Artemis, who was giving her one of his knowing looks. "And just what does 'uh-huh' mean?"

"It means Makoto is usually the one who goes for older men."

"Gee, wasn't that a pit bull I heard barking in that yard we walked past on the way here? Shall I toss you in there and find out?"

"Lots of weather we're having, huh?"

They were silent walking through the lobby. Outside, Artemis dropped down to the ground and walked beside Minako. Suddenly,  
Minako's communicator chimed. She flipped the top up. "Minako here."

"This is Rei. I'm getting seriously bad vibes from around Usagi's place. Nobody seems to be at home, though. I think we should go check it out."

"Understood. I might be a bit late but I'll be there ASAP. Out." She immediately started running for an alley entrance that was some distance ahead. It looked like it was going to be the rooftops after all.

"I wonder if it's that walking circus act looking for a heart mirror again," Artemis said, keeping pace beside Minako.

"That would make it the third time. Looks like we've got a new enemy on our hands."

"Wouldn't that just be the usual perfect timing?" Artemis teased.

"Tell me about it. Come on partner, speed up! No rest for the wicked."

The End

Postscript

Those of you who have read "Drakon", the fourth of S.M.  
Stirling's Draka novels, will by now realize that I essentially took the two main antagonists in that book, plopped them into the Sailor Moon universe and had them do essentially the same things they were doing in "our" timeline. Three new wild cards made things turn out differently. First, the laws of physics were subtly different, which not only allowed what we are calling "magic" to work but also affected the beacon and possibly these two characters' actions. Second, Rei's Sensei pulled the molehole to Japan, depositing Gwen there. Third, the Sailor Senshi themselves became involved in events.

So why do this in the first place? No other reason than that I am a big fan of both series and I wanted to see how I could pull them together. It seemed like such an unlikely combination that I just had to try it. I think the result ended up reading more like a Draka story than a Sailor Moon story. Of course,  
anything involving characters like the Draka is going to end up becoming at least a bit grim.

By the way, the title of the story is an obscure reference from the Draka novels, I will leave finding it as an exercise for the reader.

I hope you enjoyed it, I certainly had a lot of fun writing it.  
That's what it's all about, after all.

Ken 


End file.
